With three of the 10 qualifiers completed by the end of March, Trinidad & Tobago were bottom of their six-team CONCACAF group and as far away from the 2006 Football World Cup finals as they could be.
After six matches, matters had hardly improved with just four points taken from a possible 18 and the team lying one place off the foot of the standings.
Then a funny thing started to happen. Trinidad & Tobago chalked up three victories in their last four games and clinched a playoff match against Bahrain with the winners set to go to Germany.
Trinidad triumphed 2-1 on aggregate and the partying has hardly stopped since.
With a population of just 1.1 million, the two-island nation will be the smallest at the finals and are unlikely to survive the first round.
Their fans, however, will probably be among the noisiest and most exuberant in Germany and those lucky enough to get tickets know who to thank.
Former Dutch national coach Leo Beenhakker, now 63, transformed the Soca Warriors when he took over from Bertile St Clair after the first three qualifiers.
Helped by the return of experienced striker Dwight Yorke who came out of international retirement, their fortunes began to improve as confidence grew.
Although their main achievement has been to actually get to the finals, the side are unlikely to be total pushovers.
Thirteen of them make their living in England with goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, striker Stern John and Kenwyne Jones all having Premier League experience and Hislop still in the elite division at West Ham United.
Yorke, the team's talisman, won the English title and Champions League with Manchester United and although now 34 he is still scoring for Sydney United in Australia and will be back on the world stage when his team play in next month's Club World Championship in Japan.
The side usually play in a 4-4-2 formation and there is no lack of talent. That, together with a smattering of experience and plenty of enthusiasm should make their World Cup debut a lively one, for the three first-round matches they are likely to be involved in.
© 2024 Rediff.com -