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World Cup: Warm welcome overwhelms Trinidad and Tobago squad

The town square was filled with sand, tropical trees and flags from Trinidad and Tobago.

The players from the smallest country ever to make the World Cup were made to feel right at home as they arrived at their German base on Sunday.

The small town of Rotenburg got a little Caribbean flavor at a pep rally welcoming the Trinidad and Tobago soccer team.

"It's great to have this kind of support," Trinidad forward Russell Latapy said. "But it's time to get ready to play."

Two German kids built a sand castle with a Trinidad and Tobago flag on top, others sang and danced along to a fight song for the Soca Warriors and there was even rum straight from Trinidad being sold alongside German beer.

"They really did a great job making us feel at home," said Brent Perryman, 30, who came to Germany with six friends to cheer on his team. "It seems that lots of people are adopting us because we're such a small country."

Standing a few meters away from Perryman was Gunter Heeke, who made the 200km drive from Rheine to the pep rally for the team from the island twin-nation of just more than 1 million people.

Heeke and 20 of his friends, including many teammates on his local soccer team, bought tickets for Trinidad's opener on June 10 against Sweden.

They had Trinidad T-shirts with their own nicknames on the back and were ready to pull hard for the team they knew little about.

"We figured that Trinidad and Tobago wouldn't have a lot of fans here so we decided to support them," Heeke said. "It's something different and kind of fun."

Rotenburg Mayor Detlef Eichinger greeted the team at the airport in nearby Bremen and headlined the pep rally.

Dwight Yorke, the former Manchester United player, got the biggest welcome as the German fans chanted "Dwight! Dwight! Dwight!" repeatedly.

Yorke and Latapy, the last active members from the team that nearly qualified for the 1990 World Cup, came out of retirement from international competition last year to help their country qualify.

"It's always been my dream to play at the top level," Latapy said. "It feels great to finally be here."
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