Guest Author - Eileen Brown

The Soca Warriors, Trinidad and Tobago's national soccer team, headed off to London on Saturday to begin the first leg of their journey to the FIFA 2006 World Cup in Germany. Only three other Caribbean nations - Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica - have made it to the World Cup before, and qualifying for the 2006 World Cup is particularly notable for the Soca Warriors, because with a citizenry of merely 1.1 million people, Trinidad and Tobago is the smallest country by both geography and population ever to make the final cut.

Soccer fans in Trinidad and Tobago have waited sixteen years for this opportunity to see their home team strut their stuff; they've come close a few times and they missed out on qualifying for the 1990 World Cup by just one goal. In a country where soccer is far and away the nation's favorite sport, the Soca Warrior's qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup elicited what has been called "an amazing and perhaps unparalleled explosion of joy" throughout the country of Trinidad and Tobago.

Only hours after news of the team's victorious win in the qualifying game against Bahrain, at Bahrain National Stadium, reached the Caribbean, the soccer-crazed citizens of Trinidad and Tobago went wild. Prime Minister Patrick Manning proclaimed the following day a national holiday and urged the citizens of his country to receive the Soca Warriors with a hero's welcome. The prime minister himself greeted the Soca Warriors on the airport tarmac. Schoolchildren and their families lined the airport road. Masses of citizens took to the streets of Port of Spain, waving red and black Trinidadian flags. The crowds cheered and whistled, car horns blasted, and Soca and steelpan bands played far into the night. Thousands of Trinbagonians, from every walk of life, came out to welcome home the Soca Warriors, and in a country that has endured decades of racial tension, economic disparities and culture clashes, a renewed sense of national pride has brought together people of every race, class, and religion on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago. The Soca Warriors have become a symbol of patriotism and unity.

On Sunday, June 10, when the Soca Warriors meet Sweden's soccer team in their first World Cup 2006 game on the playing field at Dortmund, Germany, hundreds of thousands of people in Trinidad and Tobago and millions more throughout the Caribbean, will be cheering on the valiant men in red. A World Cup victory for the Soca Warriors would be exhilarating beyond measure.

But, while the people of Trinidad and Tobago would be jubilant over a win, some philosophical citizens of the twin island nation won't be unduly dissapointed if the Soca Warriors are not victorious in the World Cup Tournament. They are already feeling a sense of victory, because their own Soca Warriors, the team that represents their small island nation, has brought together the divided citizens of Trinidad and Tobago and has earned its rightful place among the finest and most skillful soccer teams in the world. Garnering such national unity and achieving elite World Cup team status means to many Trinbagonians that the Soca Warriors have already won.