Patriotic passions swelled across the Anglo-Caribbean when Trinidad and Tobago, the smallest country ever to play in the World Cup, faced former colonial power England on Thursday. The old mother country was the prohibitive favorite but after T&T played to a draw in its opener against European powerhouse Sweden, it seemed possible that their swarming defense might somehow contain the star studded English team. And it almost did. England earned its only goals in the last ten minutes of the match and today Prime Minister Manning said that, in his mind, England's win must carry an asterisk.
Patrick Manning, Prime Minister - Trinidad and Tobago
"We are very proud of that team. They are very proud super warriors. This morning on television in Trinidad and Tobago there was a replay of the first goal that was scored by the British team, and understand I haven't seen it yet, but it is said that there was a foul associated with the goal. There was. You saw it? You saw it. Well the referee didn't see it. What are we to do? But the strategy of the Soca Warriors is a defensive strategy which worked very well but when the first goal was called a defensive strategy became irrelevant. They then had to change the strategy to score if they were to at least equalize and in changing that strategy they had to open up defense and the second goal was scored. In other words, had the first goal not been scored, the strategy would have remained the same and they would have ended up with a result very different than the one we have now.
I'd just like to thank the government and people of Belize for your support of the Soca Warriors. That support is well appreciated by the government and people of Trinidad and Tobago."
Manning spent just about two hours in Belize. As outgoing president of CARICOM he is on a whirlwind four nation tour of countries that he describes as being on the periphery of CARICOM: he started in Guyana, went on to Suriname, then Belize, and finally, Jamaica. A CARICOM release describes his tour as a special "mission", which we will take as having something to do with the special diplomatic issue being pursued by Belize.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith Swift
