Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago lost its soccer match with the United States at the Gold Cup in Anaheim, Calif., then the players lost their ride from the stadium and discovered they had been robbed. By departure time yesterday, they couldn't wait to lose their memories of Southern California. "It's been horrible," manager Richard Abraham said. The 25-member team was left waiting at Anaheim Stadium for a bus that never arrived after the 3-2 loss to the host team Saturday. About 20 Trinidad and Tobago fans who waited outside to help said they were harassed by security guards and Anaheim police, who spotlighted them from a helicopter and arrived in squad cars.

No need to hear a score to know how the United States fared in its World Cup soccer qualifier yesterday against Trinidad and Tobago. Just listen to the visitors talk about the weather. "It's very difficult for the blood," said Trinidad and Tobago's coach. "The Americans have done their homework," said his best player. No, these were not balmy island conditions at the University of Richmond Stadium. The temperature dipped below 50, and balls hung up in the wind. American players just shrugged.

Bobby Convey's first touch of last night's World Cup qualifier came a little more than a minute in. The Northeast Philadelphia native redirected the ball back to a teammate and took off. He didn't stop much all night, until he was finally escorted off the field with a second yellow card. "Bobby really caused a lot of problems making runs tonight," U.S. teammate Brian McBride said. That first pass was returned right back to Convey. The left midfielder then angled toward Trinidad and Tobago's goal and found the right moment to send a pass over to McBride, whose sliding goal gave the U.S. team a 1-0 lead 91 seconds into the game at Rentschler Field.

BAYER LEVERKUSEN sporting director Rudi Voeller was dismayed that his players squabbled over the souvenir when Lionel Messi gave the shirt off his back - at halftime. Messi scored one goal, set up another and hit a post in Barcelona's 3-1 Champions League win at Leverkusen (Germany) on Tuesday night, when two of the home team's players were a little too keen to collect a jersey from the three-time FIFA player of the year. The eagerness of defenders Michal Kadlec and Manuel Friedrich to acquire Messi's shirt was "definitely a bit too much," Voeller said in yesterday's edition of German daily Bild . Bild reported Kadlec exchanged jerseys with the Argentine star at halftime, only for Friedrich to take it from him after a squabble outside the locker rooms.

The final round of Olympic men's soccer qualifying in the CONCACAF region will be held April 21-30 in Hershey, Pa. As host of the tournament, from which two teams will qualify for next year's Sydney Games, the United States team received a bye into the six-team field. Other countries in the CONCACAF region will have to get past another round of qualifiers early next year in Panama, Mexico, or Trinidad and Tobago to advance to Hershey. Among the top players expected to be on the U.S. under-23-year-old team that represents the country at the Olympic level are Penn Charter School graduate Chris Albright, now a forward for MLS champion D.C. United, and Ben Olsen, another D.C. United star who grew up in Middletown, Pa., and played a lot of youth soccer in this area for FC Delco.

A group of Muslim militants said yesterday that they had toppled the government of Trinidad and Tobago and had captured the Parliament building and the prime minister. The Caribbean News Agency said at least three people were killed when armed young men burst into Parliament firing their guns while the chamber was in session, but there was no confirmation of that report. The news agency quoted witnesses as saying that the bodyguards of Prime Minister Arthur Robinson were jostled out of the Parliament building in their underwear.

WHILE SPECIFICS were cloudy, a team source confirmed that Union midfielder Keon Daniel will miss tonight's match against Portland at PPL Park (7:30, The Comcast Network). Earlier in the day, another source revealed that Daniel - who missed Wednesday's 4-4 tie with New England because of international responsibilities for Trinidad and Tobago - is dealing with immigration issues. The matter was said to be centered on Daniel's work permits and visa. While team officials would not confirm nor deny the claim, a representative texted that Daniel will "not be available for tomorrow's match.

Veterans Memorial Stadium is basically a high school football and track field - although a town worker thought she remembered a Charlie Daniels concert here a few years back. Behind one set of stands sits Beehive Field, home of the Eastern League's New Britain Red Sox. Yesterday, 10,561 people, a majority of them Guatemalans, gathered at the stadium to see the U.S. soccer team try to step out of the sport's own minor leagues and move on to the big time, the 1990 World Cup final round in Italy.

A 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago earned the United States its first berth in the World Cup finals in 40 years. But for U.S. soccer, the win had an even greater significance. The loss of potential revenue to the United States Soccer Federation had the U.S. team not qualified would have been at least $6 million to $8 million, said Richard Groff, business manager of the U.S. team and president of the Eastern Pennsylvania Soccer Association. The trickle-down from that loss could have been devastating for American soccer.

Every day is a tryout. That's how Chris Albright views his bid to make the U.S. squad for next year's soccer World Cup. "It's in the front of my mind at all times," Albright said. The Philadelphia native and Penn Charter graduate is on the U.S. roster for tomorrow's World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago in East Hartford, Conn. These kinds of games are the biggest tryouts, but Albright knows his play for the Los Angeles Galaxy also is a crucial part of the trial. "I have to prove myself," Albright said the other day in a telephone interview.

BAYER LEVERKUSEN sporting director Rudi Voeller was dismayed that his players squabbled over the souvenir when Lionel Messi gave the shirt off his back - at halftime. Messi scored one goal, set up another and hit a post in Barcelona's 3-1 Champions League win at Leverkusen (Germany) on Tuesday night, when two of the home team's players were a little too keen to collect a jersey from the three-time FIFA player of the year. The eagerness of defenders Michal Kadlec and Manuel Friedrich to acquire Messi's shirt was "definitely a bit too much," Voeller said in yesterday's edition of German daily Bild . Bild reported Kadlec exchanged jerseys with the Argentine star at halftime, only for Friedrich to take it from him after a squabble outside the locker rooms.

The Big East will announce the additions of Boise State and San Diego State as football-only members and Houston, Central Florida, and SMU for all sports, the Star-Ledger of New Jersey reported Tuesday. The five schools will join in 2013. Temple still is considered a football-only backup possibility if Navy or Air Force or both decide not to join the league for football. But nobody is suggesting that is likely right now. Pittsburgh, Syracuse, West Virginia, and TCU all have left the conference in recent months.

WHILE SPECIFICS were cloudy, a team source confirmed that Union midfielder Keon Daniel will miss tonight's match against Portland at PPL Park (7:30, The Comcast Network). Earlier in the day, another source revealed that Daniel - who missed Wednesday's 4-4 tie with New England because of international responsibilities for Trinidad and Tobago - is dealing with immigration issues. The matter was said to be centered on Daniel's work permits and visa. While team officials would not confirm nor deny the claim, a representative texted that Daniel will "not be available for tomorrow's match.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - Robbie Findley sounded quiet, slightly unsure, as he leaned into the microphone and answered only the questions directly asked of him, and nothing more. Findley's reserve was understandable. He was sitting next to World Cup veterans: goalkeeper Tim Howard and defender Steve Cherundolo. In such company, deference was easy. But given the possible shift in the U.S. team's attacking scheme - presumed starting forward Jozy Altidore sprained his right ankle during Thursday's training - Findley's speedy, attacking game could move him from the bench to the starting lineup.

Balloons lift man across Channel LONDON - In a goofy yet mesmerizing stunt, an American adventurer crossed the English Channel on Friday carried by a bundle of helium balloons, ending a quiet and serene flight by touching down in a French cabbage patch. Jonathan Trappe, 36, of Raleigh, N.C., was strapped in a specially equipped chair below a bright cluster of balloons when he lifted off early Friday from Kent, in southeast England. About five hours later, he lowered himself in France by cutting some of the balloons away.

You will hear, on occasion, expats from Trinidad pine for a lost land - for beaches that are gone, and trails paved over, for the slower boat to Tobago (now it's a two-hour trip, not an overnight), and island architecture washed away by a wave of Americanized design. Last week one of them named Clarence Drakes, an architect himself, happened by Calypso, the homey Trinidadian stand in the Chestnut Hill Farmers Market, and he soon fell into a deep, misty-eyed reverie. Ah, but the food, reminded his friend Ayanna Osbourne, who has family ties on the island, that's another matter: No one has torn that page from Trinidad's story.

The U.S. soccer team will be under heavy pressure tomorrow night in a World Cup qualifier against Honduras at Chicago's Soldier Field. After getting blown out, 3-1, by host Costa Rica in a qualifier on Wednesday night, the Americans will need a win tomorrow. Their next qualifier is in August at Mexico, where they're 0-22-1. The No. 14 Americans dropped to 0-7-1 in qualifying in Costa Rica, including 0-7 in San Jose, where they have been outscored, 16-5. The United States is 15-0-1 in qualifying at home since a 3-2 defeat to Honduras at Washington's RFK Stadium in September 2001.

Even at 80, Don Kaskey is a tireless globetrotter, and he's got the stories to prove it. "So I'm in a hotel in Caracas," he'll say, or, "The last time I was in Tobago . . . " You have to wonder: How can this citizen of the world be content sitting silently in his side yard, in the wilds of Gulph Mills, drinking pink lemonade? Have a seat. Soon you'll understand. Kaskey's side yard, which he's nicknamed "Mockingbird Hill," is shady, cool and green. A breeze ripples through the white pines overhead, and we're surrounded - in pots and vases and along a mounded island - by floppy-eared tropical caladiums.

Russia's Tatyana Lysenko, the world recordholder in the women's hammer throw, was banned for 2 years by track and field's governing body for a doping violation. Another Russian hammer thrower, Ekaterina Khoroshikh, received the same ban. Both tested positive for a prohibited hormone blocker during an out-of-competition test in Moscow last May. Lysenko also was stripped of her record throw of 257 feet, 11 inches made a few weeks after the test samples were taken. She still holds the world record at 255-3, set in August 2006.

Dallas Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens filed a $600,000 lawsuit in New York, contending his name and photo were used in nightclub ads without his permission. The former Eagles star said the Avalon nightclub on Manhattan's West Side improperly used his name, likeness and the initials T.O. in 2006 and 2007 to promote events and parties. He said the club claimed he would be hosting the parties. Owens' lawyer, Robert Milner, said yesterday that Avalon officials had never tried to contact Owens.