A Tribute to Hutson 'Baba' Charles

22, Nov 1999
So what do we understand?
Hutson "Baba" Charles' retirement from professional football coincides with the tenth anniversary of the Strike Squad's debacle on November 19, 1989. He is surely one of the unsung heroes of the 1989 World Cup qualifiers and though "big" in heart, he remained throughout his career humble in spirit and posture.

In announcing his retirement from the game, he paid respects to all those who made it possible for him to contribute to national football and offered his services to assist, in any capacity whatsoever, the further development of the youth football programme. Of course it is only natural that he may sit on the technical bench of the Defence Force professional team which he captained so successfully for so many seasons.

First of all, we would like to wish "Baba" the greatest possible fulfilment in all his future endeavours, then there are some things we need to tell this nation.

We want to state without any fear of being contradicted that Hutson "Baba" Charles was the most complete, or total footballer to have graced our football fields within the last decade. And that is informed by our particular understanding of the beautiful game as Pele once described it.

He said elsewhere that football is a game of rapidly ensuing situations of attack and defence in which players have to concentrate fully for a first period of 45 minutes, have a respite, then come back to engage for another period of similar duration. Once on that field players have by necessity to move from one mode to another in the blink of an eye with a smoothness that appears effortless, maybe instinctive, only because of their capacity to "read" the game, to understand each other, to know what each other will do at any given moment in any given situation, as well as anticipate the moves of opponents, and be fully cognisant and alert to the demands of the structure chosen by one's team.

"Baba" played in the "defensive midfield" territory, in space, right or left or centre, just behind or alongside the "attacking midfielders" but in front of the line of defence. It is a position that some coaches refer to as the "bolt" between midfield and defence. A "bolt" is a metal nut that fastens things together or holds everything solidly in place. "Baba" was the ideal "bolt".

Many citizens of T&T who hold a mere passing interest in the game may have missed this Hutson Charles characteristic. That is why we keep insisting that a tape be done of the 1989 qualifiers to be used not only as promotional stuff, but as a focal point for the football education of the young aspirants. If such a video-tape is done we shall see that "Baba" broke down more opposing attacks than anyone else in the Strike Squad, he tackled and won more balls than anyone else in the midfield and was a dream coming forward to either distribute or join fresh attacks on our opponents' goal.

Star strikers and attacking midfielders historically have not been notable defenders: neither Yorke nor Latapy could tackle and win balls like "Baba", yet he could come forward at any time and finish as clinically as either of these two greats. Such was the measure of the man as a footballer.

We recall one occasion in Costa Rica, he arrived in time up front to join an attack, cleanly chest-trapped a pass that came to him in the air and shot on the volley, curling the ball away from the Costa Rican custodian. The goal was erroneously disallowed as the Costa Ricans appealed for "hand-ball", but it remains in our view one of the great goals of the 1989 qualifiers, ranking with the two that Jamerson scored. More importantly, if that goal had been allowed we would not have ended up scrambling for a mere one point versus the USA on November 19, 1989.

And it was "Baba" again in that swift change of mode from defence to attack who came up to collect a Marlon Morris head-on off a long diagonal pass from Brian Williams and clinically scored against Meola, thereby tying the game, giving us a new life which we simply proceeded to squander on November 19.

We forced our way through the massive crowd, with our flags, jubilant, unintimidated by the USA, confident that we would be in Italy, so confident in fact that we had made arrangements with relatives in London to arrive there and obtain rented vehicles with which we hoped to ferry across to France and then drive all the way to Rome where we had contacted some cheap villas through Madame Dillon at the Amral Travel Agency in Barataria. We planned to awaken Europe, as we drove through, to the "Intercol" sounds of T&T.

But to our horror we arrived over the line only to discover that "Baba" the bolt was benched, destined not to come on until the 61st minute. We knew then that by some weird twist of fate we had thrown away the game and the opportunity to make the World Cup playoffs. If it was the voodoo of Papa Doc that defied and undid us in Haiti in '73, then it was certainly our own stupidity in '89.

That loss to the USA had very little to do with the long journey from Forest Reserve, or the failure to wet the ground, or the failure to pressurise and intimidate the Americans from the moment they landed at the airport, as if Gargarno would have allowed that given our history of gutless governments, or any such spurious variables as suggested by so may of the pundits in our football administration. No, no, a thousand times, no! We lost because we started without the "Iron-Bolt".

Paul Elliot-Allen, not a regular, in a dead-ball situation, scored a bullet from 40 yards out in one of the friendlies played just before November 19 and, totally disregarding his slowness, his inability to win tackles, his lack of footballing smarts, our technical staff brought him in and benched "The Bolt". Again a reflection of our tendency to self-destruct.

A disservice was done to this country on November 19. With "Baba" in the midfield Caliguri would not have been allowed all that space to comfortably lob the ball, without any plan as he now confesses, into our goal. Jamerson and Allen just were not quick nor alert enough to shut Caliguri down.

And there are signs that we will allow the conspiracy of stupidity to continue to prevail. What we saw in Honduras on Wednesday last exposed this. We have no defence. King is not yet ready for this level. Elcock, despite his vast experience in the MLS, still cannot distribute the ball, and Dog Andrews of Raith Rovers is still good only in the air, woefully inadequate on the ground, and Shurland David needs to learn how to be flexible in positioning himself according to the play so that he does not have to chase continuously after opposing strikers.

Maybe if we award Huston "Baba" Charles for his yeoman service to football and explain why we are awarding him nationally, then others, both players and officials, may come to a greater understanding of both the game and life itself.

brenco@tstt.net.tt

HUTSON "BABA" CHARLES on the attack during the 1989 Strike Squad campaign.