Our World Cup Favorite

The talk in desde Desdemona isn't the start of baseball spring training in the US. It's this summer's World Cup in Germany, and the possibility that Trinidad and Tobago, the local favorite, will make it to the next round. Forget, if you will, that Der Spiegel says, "Most think that Trinidad and Tobago have no chance in the World Cup. But the Caribbean nation wasn't supposed to qualify either. They've imported both players and a trainer in preparation." How's that? No chance. Not slight chance, not even a long shot. No chance. None. Nada.

Now there's a team you can support! The statistics seem to be against Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad is ranked 50th in the world. It has to play in Group B against Sweden (#14), England (#9) and Paraguay (#30). Only two teams advance from each group. Trinidad has only one star, former Manchester United forward Dwight Yorke, who is now 34. All of the other players are on second level pro teams. The team made the qualifying rounds only after beating Bahrain (now there's a football power) in a playoff for the final spot.

Does any of this seemingly bad news detract from desde Desdemona's support of Trinidad? No way. When you're over 30, guys like Dwight Yorke are the real heroes, not those single name upstarts from Brazil. And anybody who's over 30 and tries to keep playing "the beautiful game" knows that the youngsters are flashy, but it's the guys like Dwight Yorke who are skilled, cunning, and hungry.