THEODORE ‘Tappa’ Whitmore’s delightful double for Jamaica against Japan at the France World Cup in 1998 was no accident or sudden stroke of luck.

The mercurial performance that day was inspired by his own — a pep talk with teammates Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner and Ian ‘Pepe’ Goodison after the Reggae Boyz had lost their previous two group matches to Croatia (1-3) and Argentina (5-0).

Wanting to end the tournament on a high for themselves, the fans who journeyed to France and those who watched back home, Whitmore received his orders.

“Myself, Ricardo Gardner and Pepe sat down the night before the Japan game and were discussing the whole campaign and they were saying to me that ‘You were the one that started it in Suriname (Whitmore got the lone goal for victory in the first World Cup qualifier for the 1998 campaign), so you need to just come up for us to end it’,” Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer after the team’s training session a Noranda Bauxite Sports Club on Tuesday.

Whitmore answered the call in fine style, not with one, but two goals from each boot for a 2-1 victory over fellow debutants Japan.

“I remember when I scored the first goal and Goodison said to me, ‘Remember weh we talk bout this last night, so you have to get one more for us’, and I found another one, and I was trying to go for the hat-trick but never got it unfortunately,” said Whitmore, who is now the head coach for the team who bows into World Cup qualifying action today against Guatemala at the National Stadium.

To score two goals in competitive football is worthy of commendation, but to get two in one match in a senior World Cup is the stuff dreams are made of.

“Those goals were memorable to actually know that so many players have been playing in the World Cup Finals, big players as well, and haven’t scored a goal and a small country like Jamaica with a player like Theodore Whitmore getting two is really memorable,” said Whitmore, who played professionally in the UK.

But getting to the World Cup just did not happen at the wave of a magic wand; there was sacrifice with blood, sweat and tears — about four years’ worth.

“I can remember one camp in Brazil when you could say we lived on the bus… we just travelled and played games, it was something to talk about.

“It was like being with your family, we didn’t want to leave, this is what I remember and it showed in the games we played. Before we even touched the field one could feel that it doesn’t really matter who we played against, we believed that we could get something out of the game, even against Brazil,” Whitmore recollected.

The Brazilian Rene Simoes changed the face of local football with his coming, and so too the lives of the players whom he shaped into professionals.

“Football has saved a lot of us lives in Jamaica because if it wasn’t for football I don’t know what Theodore Whitmore would be doing, and I can speak for many other players too,” said Whitmore, who had stints with English teams Hull City and Tranmere Rovers and Scottish Premier League outfit Livingston.

Looking back, the former Seba united midfielder said as the programme picked up momentum, he and other players could sense that the thought of getting to the World Cup was not as far-fetched as some people thought.

“The whole confidence, the whole vibes, everything was there. During the training sessions you could see it; those session were like real games, a narrow win for one team or a draw, no big wins for the ‘A’ team or the ‘B’ team. In fact you couldn’t tell the ‘A’ team from the ‘B’ team,” he recalled.

“Honestly, for the whole preparation phase there were no two ways about us qualifying for the World Cup because we were doing what we were supposed to be doing. Everybody played their part in that campaign, so there was no doubt in my mind that we would have qualified,” Whitmore added.

When it finally happened on that Sunday evening on home turf after a 0-0 draw with Mexico, ‘Tappa’ had died and gone to football heaven.

“It was the joy because usually people would be sitting down at World Cup time ready to watch Brazil or whichever team they support, and to see that we were actually going to be there, that feeling came over me,” said the former Jamaica captain as he recaptured images of that historic day.

Today, the 39-year-old Whitmore is still pursuing World Cup dreams. He has made it as a player; now he wants to do it as coach. He uses the successful 1998 campaign to inspire the current players.

“We can’t compare the ’98 team with this team because of the differences between the times, but we keep meetings and try to tell the players about that campaign. We try to tell them what qualifying for the World Cup Finals can do for them as players and for the country itself, so we try to sit with them and let them understand these things,” he said.

France 1998 World Cup squad — Warren Barrett (#1), Steven Malcolm (#2), Christohper Dawes (#3), Linval Dixon (#4), Ian Goodison (#5), Fitzroy Simpson (#6), Perter Cargill (#7), Marcus Gayle (#8), Andy Williams (#9), Walter Boyd (#10), Theodore Whitmore (#11), Dean Sewell (#12), Aaron Lawrence (#13), Donovan Ricketts (#14), Ricardo Gardner (#15), Robbie Earle (#16), Onandi Lowe (#17), Deon Burton (#18), Frank Sinclair (#19), Darren Powell (#20), Durrant Brown (#21), Paul Hall (#22).