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T & T Warriors Coach Leo Beenhakker Has 'Stern' Word With Team Prior To Bahrain Playoff Showdown

Submitted by Scott Harkness on Wed, 16/11/2005 - 05:24.

Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker has demanded his side, and in particular T&T and Birmingham City’s star striker Stern John, show greater commitment in attack when the ‘Soca Warriors’ meet Bahrain in the second leg of their 2006 World Cup qualifying play-off later today, which currently stands at 1-1.

“Stern John is our main striker and he played very well in all our previous matches but (in the first leg) he was a victim in that the team didn’t play well,” the 63-year-old Dutch coach said at Tuesday’s pre-match press conference in Bahrain.

“The most important thing in football is to score, and last Saturday we didn’t have much possession and lost too many balls. That’s why Bahrain dominated the game. This thing has nothing to do with tactics or the system of play.”

In Saturday’s first leg in the Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago’s England-born midfielder Chris Birchall salvaged a draw for the Caribbean side with a stunning 76th minute striker to cancel out Salman Issa’s opener just four minutes earlier.

With Bahrain’s away goal advantage, Beenhakker knows that the Warriors have to score, and he is likely to keep faith with the proven attack of Stern John and former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke, while Port Vale’s goal scorer from the first-leg Chris Birchall will support them from midfield.

However Beenhakker, the who has managed Ajax, Real Madrid and Saudi Arabia in his time, didn’t rule out the possibility of changes to the side that played on Saturday in their attempt to get Trinidad and Tobago to their first ever World Cup finals.

“I’ll possibly make some changes but I usually don’t change players just after one bad match,” he said. “It’s the best team around and we have to realise that this match is different. We know now that the result is 1-1 and we have to score but we also know that we might have to do some changes”.

“We take Bahrain seriously and we never thought it was going to be a walk in the park. We never underestimated any team before and we will never do that as we respect every team that we play against.”