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Phillippe Vorbes, Manno Sanon, Ti-Pierre Bayonne Toup pou yo! Although it's been Twenty-eight years since Haiti's last World Cup appearance these songs remain in the heart of most Haitians. In 1974 Haiti qualified for the World Cup Finals for the first time, when Trinidad defeated Mexico 4-0. Their results in the World Cup was far from impressive:

Group 4

G W D L F A P

Poland 3 3 0 0 12 3 6

Argentina 3 1 1 1 7 5 3

Italy 3 1 1 1 5 4 3

Haiti 3 0 0 3 2 14 0

15 June - München Italy 3-1 Haiti

15 June - Stuttgart Poland 3-2 Argentina

19 June - München Poland 7-0 Haiti

19 June - Stuttgart Argentina 1-1 Italy

23 June - München Argentina 4-1 Haiti

23 June - Stuttgart Poland 2-1 Italy

But the nation was happy to participate. In 1982 and 1998 the number of Concacaf teams allowed in the World Cup Finals increased to 2 and 3 respectively. In 1971 and 1977 Haiti finished 2nd behind Mexico by 2 and 3 points respectively. But back in those days only one team from the Concacaf region had the chance to proceed to the World Cup finals.

Haiti should have maintained the same input of the 1971-1977 era. Nowadays Teams like Canada, Mexico and the United States are a lot stronger, for example, the United States have players in the top league of the world:

GK: Brad FRIEDEL (30, Blackburn Rovers FC/ENG, 72/0); Kasey KELLER (32, Tottenham Hotspur FC/ENG, 55/0)

DF: Jeff AGOOS (33, San Jose Earthquakes, 122/4); Gregg BERHALTER 27-21/0 (27, Crystal Palace FC/ENG. 21/0); Frankie HEJDUK (27, Bayer 04 Leverkusen/GER, 35/5); Pablo MASTROENI (25, Colorado Rapids, 6/0); David REGIS (33, FC Metz/FRA, 23/0), Tony SANNEH (26, 1. FC Nürnberg/GER, 26/1)

MD: Chris ARMAS (31, Chicago Fire, 40/2); Cobi JONES (31, Los Angeles Galaxy, 150/14); Eddie LEWIS (27, Fulham FC/ENG, 33/2); John O?BRIEN (24, AFC Ajax/NED, 11/1); Claudio REYNA (28, Sunderland AFC/ENG, 84/8); Earnie STEWART (32, NAC Breda/NED, 74/15)

AT: Landon DONOVAN (19, San Jose Earthquakes, 14/2); Jovan KIROVSKI (25, Crystal Palace FC/ENG, 52/7); Joe-Max MOORE (30, Everton FC/ENG, 92/24); Josh WOLFF (24, Chicago Fire, 13/4)

Success comes with hard work and experience. The U.S.A has sustained their efforts and managed to improve their game within the last decade. Hopefully Haiti will learn that the key to success is to maintain their efforts. If they don't make it in 2006, learn from the mistakes and push for 2010.