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Surprise of the tournament: Trinidad and Tobago's point
11/07/2006: Although there has been no shock wins by small nations during the 2006 World Cup, there have been a number of unexpected happenings that have beaten the odds.
Not least, the success of eventual winners Italy, who were widely regarded as one of the poorest the country had produced in recent years. Fellow finalists France also overturned the odds by making it to Berlin and the odds of having their star man Zinedine Zidane sent off in his final ever professional football match must also have been rather long!
But the most surprising occurrence of this year's World Cup was that a tiny nation in the Caribbean was able not only to attend the finals, but was also able to walk away with their first ever World Cup point.
Trinidad and Tobago surprised everyone from the start, by securing their solitary point in their opening game against a Swedish side that was thought to be a great attacking force – the pundits were wrong on that too.
A strong rear guard action saw the islanders keep a clean sheet, although it took a magnificent performance from the veteran goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, the former West Ham, Portsmouth and Reading stopper. He has now moved to the US, to play his football in Major League Soccer.
Despite his heroics, Shaka did not earn the point all on his own. The latter stages of the match saw the side's captain, ex-Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke, playing in a deep defensive midfield role.
While plying his trade in England, he was known as an out and out striker, loth to cross the half way line unless absolutely necessary.
But the temptation of earning an unlikely point at the first opportunity drove him to take up defensive duties – and any punters who put a bet on that happening would have been richly rewarded!
After that performance, many people may have been tempted to put a couple of quid on Trinidad and Tobago to upset England.
Those gamblers would have had bookies in a sweat with ten minutes left in the fixture between the two sides, as the score again remained 0-0. But unfancied front man Peter Crouch came up with a late goal and Steven Gerrard scored a second to add to the score line.
Trinidad and Tobago will be very happy with their efforts, however, and go home having earned the respect of the footballing world.
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