FOOTBALL

When three Black English soccer players missed spot-kicks Sunday in a penalty shootout -- following a 1-1 tie with Italy in the Euro 2020 final -- a number of Black friends, and Black people on Twitter, all had the same reaction: Those three men are going to face incredible racial abuse.

Football's world governing body FIFA and the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), are set to deal with issues of death threats, racism and attempts to physically harm directed to members of the T&T football team at the ongoing CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States.

The improved performances of our national football team, popularly known as the Soca Warriors, have given local sport fans reasons to hope again.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Trinidad and Tobago punched their ticket to the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup group stage thanks to a dramatic 8-7 penalty shootout win over French Guiana following a 1-1 draw in the Second Round of the 2021 Gold Cup Prelims on Tuesday at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

It is rare for a team to win no trophies yet be revered by a nation. It is even rarer for them to be still spoken of four decades later.