T&T and Jamaica face off in first friendly
T&T and Jamaica face off in first friendly
Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Team will be looking to maximise all possibilities when they face off with Jamaica in the first of two international friendlies from 6pm (7pm TT) at the Montego Bay Sports Complex. The bigger focus remains the two Concacaf Nations League matches later this month away to Bahamas on March 24 and at home to Nicaragua at the Dwight Yorke Stadium on March 27th. But head coach Angus Eve will be keeping a keen eye on his troops in these two affairs over the next few days.
“Doing the right things consistently is what will bring the results that we want,” Eve said on Thursday when speaking to the Jamaican Press.
“These two games will tell alot because Jamaica brought a lot of foreign based players with a lot of good players inside of the team. We have primarily a locally-based team with a sprinkling of about two senior guys who we haven’t seen in a while so we will want to see them in these games to see if they can get into squad come Nations League later this month.
“These matches will tell us a good bit of where our football is at this time if we can play and stand up with these class of players (from Jamaica) with our locally-based players.
Experienced goalkeeper Marvin Phillip knows what it is to be involved in the T&T/Jamaica derby and is expecting the host to bring it against Eve’s men.
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“We know these games always have a certain atmosphere and feel to it. For years it’s always battle between the two countries whether it be qualifiers or friendlies and I expect Jamaica to come hard at us,” Phillip told TTFA Media.
But these are the type of matches we need and want to be part of. Our squad has some senior guys but also a lot of young, vibrant players who are looking to make a good impression. I think once we stay disciplined and stick to our game plan, then we can definitely give a good showing and hopefully come out with positive results in both games. The first game will give us a good idea of what the home team has to offer as well. The bigger focus is of course the two Nations League games but these matches versus Jamaica will play a big part in our readiness,” Phillip added.
The T&T team trained twice at the JFF Training Centre, UWI Mona Campus before traveling to Montego Bay on Friday morning where it is based with the Jamaica team at the Holiday Inn Resort. Eve will conduct a final session on Friday evening at the match venue.
Kick off is 6pm local, 7pm TT Time. The Jamaica Football Federation, up until Friday, indicated that there were no concrete plans to have live televised or livestream coverage of the first match but there will be a livestream of Tuesday’s second friendly at the National Stadium, Kingston.
