- 1 hour ago
The World Cup is over we didn't make it this time. However in 2006 this country created history in competing in the world cup for the first time.
Let's rewind to a team that united T&T and gave this nation its first hope of making it on the world stage in Tonight's Catching Up segment.
Let's rewind to a team that united T&T and gave this nation its first hope of making it on the world stage in Tonight's Catching Up segment.
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00:00I
00:48Well, the great name Gali comes from a gentleman named Uncle Leo, as Leo Gilbert was his name.
00:54And what happened is that I used to like boxing. I was small and tough, you know. And he said,
01:00wait a minute. There's a Italian boxer named Gali Hento. And that was it. Everybody called me Gali Hento in
01:08the neighborhood. And in football times now, they call me Gali for short.
01:30When I came from Jamaica, after the tournament, the taxi dropped me home. And my older brother, he said, boy,
01:37you're going to play football in the States. And I said, what are you talking about?
01:41And when I went inside, I saw the priest from Fatima College. I was at Fatima College at the time.
01:48And my parents discussing with the scout, the guy who was recruiting players from the States, a guy by the
01:57name of Tomkinson, an Englishman, who went to Jamaica to coach football.
02:00And he was getting players for the league. And that's how it started. The next thing I knew, I was
02:07off to Atlanta.
02:22The team was predominantly white players from Europe and Britain. And we had two players from Zambia. We had one
02:36from Ghana.
02:38And we had one from South Africa. And we had one from South Africa. And I, the only player from
02:44Trinidad. Plus, I had two Jamaicans who got, also got contracted, Atlanta, who were there also.
02:52So back in those times, the white players, we only met them for practice and games. After that, we went
03:00back to our community and theirs. If they caught us in the white community, we would have been put in
03:05jail.
03:14Sometimes, we might have a game late at night and going home. This was back in the black neighborhood where
03:20we, we stayed. Police would pull us over.
03:23And it happened many times. Some police took money away from us. They stopped us. And we had to tell
03:30them we were pioneers of soccer. We played soccer. Some of them believed it. Some called up on the phone
03:36to find out.
03:38And so, but it was a dangerous thing. Sometimes we sat down in a hamburger, places to have a burger
03:45and a milkshake or something. And people like was looking at us. And me and my Jamaican partners and my
03:50African partners from Zambia and Ghana.
03:54And I believe, white people are looking at us. And then the lady woke up and said, we can't serve
03:59you. And we said, why? And she point. Why it's only.
04:04Right.
04:05We hope here.
04:07Ever.
04:13Well.
04:25Before the game against Pelen 1968, he said to me, he said, Galileal, we gone and see the King.
04:31When he called Pele the king, he said, we're going to see the king.
04:34I said, boy, we can't go to the people hotel just so.
04:37He said, man, there we go.
04:39The Jamaican accent.
04:40And one thing with the Jamaicans, they have a proud kind of attitude.
04:43They ain't afraid to say things.
04:44He said, there we go.
04:46I said, okay.
04:47Where you went?
04:49Pele accepted us, hugged us up, and signed some footballs for us, and gave us.
04:55And I said, up to this day, well, he died about a year ago now, when Pele stayed good
05:00friends.
05:01We give thanks to God who gave us a leader to heal the white man's sickness and the black
05:10man's slavery.
05:11The bus met us by the Atlanta stadium.
05:13We went to the funeral.
05:14But when we got on the bus, what do you think we saw?
05:17Stevie Wonder.
05:19Little Stevie back in 68.
05:22Rita Franklin, Dan Carroll, Bill Cosby.
05:26We were on our way to Morehouse College for the funeral.
05:31The bus driver said, you have to pick up some people.
05:34And he stopped by a little dark alley.
05:37The Supremes.
05:39Diana Ross, three of them, with some short black dresses.
05:45Back those days, we never had cameras and phones.
05:48So I couldn't get a picture.
05:49But what was nice is that when we reached Morehouse College, we were hooked hands, walking
05:56down the street, singing, being a child overcome.
06:03The director of sports at the ministry, back in the 80s, was Cecil Walker.
06:11And he used to come around and look and see what coaches were doing.
06:16And his national team was having a lot of problems.
06:19Football practically in his grave.
06:21And he said to them, come in as a national player.
06:25And, I mean, he did human service for the national team.
06:28Why do you all don't use him?
06:36The strike squad came in 1989.
06:40We were playing against Costa Rica.
06:44I think it was our first game in the World Cup.
06:46All before that, I was talking about Calypso soccer.
06:50To some people who didn't understand our culture and football,
06:54somebody came with a banner in the pavilion in the stands and saying,
06:58If Galli wanted to put culture in football, why you can go and play Marcel Peter Mincelsch?
07:04You know the regular thing.
07:06And then Lance Dottley, he took clips from all the games we were playing to show
07:10how the way we played and the things that we did were so much different to the other people.
07:15He said we had to get a name for the team.
07:19And first it was the strike force.
07:21Then we say no strike squad.
07:23And since it was a national squad, we call it the strike squad.
07:34We're here at the National Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
07:37John Paul De La Camberra with Seamus Malone has scored us right now.
07:41Playing into the area.
07:42And they go out.
07:44Black White Pritchie by Trinidad and Tobago.
07:47Seen coming with a block there, which may have saved something.
07:50That will get it for a true ball, or so it appears.
07:54Coming back in New York.
07:56Deeds all over the place.
07:57We used to go to a church and pray before we go to Port of Spain.
08:02When we were going to the church in the morning of the game, we couldn't get in.
08:09People, we wanted to support the team, we loved, in love with the team.
08:13They were in the church and we could, and the priest had a part of the area for us to
08:18pass, to be blessed.
08:19Thousands of fans, 30,000 on hand, an entire nation wearing the national...
08:23When we got to the stadium, the bus couldn't get in.
08:27And the captain of the team, Clayton Morris, he had to go on top of the bus to tell the
08:31people,
08:33we didn't oversell the stadium.
08:34We are here to represent you.
08:37And we had to get the defense force to help us in with our baggage through the crowd.
08:42It had about 10,000 people with tickets, waving it at us.
08:46And saying, just thinking that we could get them in.
08:48We had nothing to do with that.
08:50It was a nice feeling to see how the country came together.
08:57Coming back is York.
09:02We couldn't lose because we were playing at home.
09:07And we had played them before.
09:10And we tied with them.
09:12And they met us at a time when the team was ready and waiting.
09:24Sometimes you prepare for something, tactically, physically, whatever,
09:28and then you go and you meet something else.
09:30Oh, the man above sees another different way.
09:41We got a penalty in the game.
09:44Our player, Philbert Jones, he was going to the goal and they kicked him from behind.
09:50The one who fouled Philbert Jones in the penalty area, he said he thought it was a penalty for sure.
09:54An amazing goal by Calajuri, who made a great move to get by one player.
09:59A block, it was a good move.
10:01And then the left foot, just a stupper volley into the far corner.
10:07And they'll be noisy if the USA will...
10:09We played more for country.
10:11It was about patriotism.
10:13It was about what boy, what people are going to say.
10:16But now, you have agents.
10:27I remember going to the grocery store and a lady with a walker, she might be a old granny.
10:36She's going to be a walker and she said, hello, hello, one minute, you know.
10:42You girl, you rather say...
10:44She say, you strike squad is the best.
10:47Anywhere I go, people stop me and shake my hand and thank me for my service and all this kind
10:53of thing.
11:14I'm so proud of my daughter Renee, my son Gabriel, he's a petroleum engineer.
11:19And my wife, she was a public servant.
11:24The best part of her life.
11:33The game is played two places.
11:36On the field and off the field.
11:39I'm sorry.
11:40I'm sorry, I'm sorry too.
11:47Put your foot here.
11:49Oh, okay.
11:50This one's just going over the ball and even the space for the foot.
11:53Step over.
11:53Pull now.
11:54Like that?
11:54Go and...
12:16I'm Evangeli coming. Thank you for catching up.
12:26I'm Evangeli coming.
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