He worshipped Pele and the great Brazilian sides of the 1970s in his youth ? but Gus Logie will still be glued to his television set this afternoon when his homeland Trinidad and Tobago make their World Cup debut against Sweden.

Though his superior cricketing skills ultimately earned him a place in the West Indies Test side, as a teenager Bermuda?s national coach was a keen footballer and had trials for the south region of Trinidad.

At the time, however, cricket was the Island?s ? not to mention the region?s ? main sport and the prestige attached to playing for the national football team was limited.

But speaking about Trinidad?s World Cup hopes yesterday, Logie was quick to admit that the roles have been reversed in recent years, though he was realistic enough to concede that Trinidad had done well just to reach the finals.

?I?m really looking forward to watching them play ? though to be honest my expectations have already been realised and the rest is just a bonus,? he said.

?That we qualified in the first place was an incredible achievement and looking at the group we?re in, we?ve got to be realistic and say we?re going to come up against two world class teams (England and Sweden) who we are going to have to play very well against just to compete with.

?All we Trinidadians can ask of them is that they give of their best. The one thing that might help us against England is that a lot of our team have played over their for most of their careers and have come up against some of their players from time to time and are more used to the English style of play. We?ll obviously have to see ? I just hope they do not rack up a cricket score!

?But qualifying for the World Cup meant a great deal to the people of Trinidad. It has become the sport on the island and most games, from top club matches through to the school level always have a large number of people coming to watch them.

?The fact that Dwight Yorke went on to do so well also helped raise its profile.

?There has been a lot more investment in football over the past ten years ? much more than cricket ? and the results have been pretty spectacular.

?I know quite a lot of the players in the squad as well and I see quite a few of them around whenever I am at home, so it will be exciting to watch them play on the biggest stage and I wish them the very best of luck.?