SENIOR MEN IN BOCA CAMP
SENIOR MEN IN BOCA CAMP
Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Men’s team is currently in a residential training camp in Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale ahead of Friday’s Concacaf Nations League encounter against Bahamas in Nassau.
Head Coach Angus Eve and the rest of the squad began assembling in Boca on Sunday evening and by Tuesday the head coach had a near full compliment of players for training with the exception of India-based forward Marcus Joseph who will join the camp ahead of Friday’s match.
Eve announced his squad on Monday and held a press briefing with the media.
If TT win both matches, they will top Group C of League B and be promoted to the A League, which automatically books them a place in the 2023 Concacaf Golf Cup. However, Eve thinks these potential victories carry more long-term benefits for TT.
“There’s much more at stake than Concacaf Gold Cup qualification,” Eve said from his Ft Lauderdale, Florida base during Tuesday’s online press briefing.
“The short-term goal is to win these matches, but it gives you the platform to go further. Being promoted back to the A League puts us in a better FIFA World Cup grouping because we’d now be one of the seeded teams.
“There’s Conmebol Copa America next year and the opportunity to qualify for that. I don’t think a lot of people appreciate how important these matches are in the realm of a lot of the things we can do going forward.”
Returning to the Gold Cup is just the first step in helping TT out of a distant 104th FIFA ranking. Higher-ranked FIFA nations want to play higher-ranked teams so they can also improve their global standings, Eve confirmed.
He added, “We’re looking for clothing sponsors, different stuff for the team. When we were playing top teams in the world, we were ranked at 25 and 26 (2001). We don’t get these matches any more simply because of where we’re ranked. We need to return to being in that type of space.”
Missing from the line up is Columbus Crew midfielder Kevin Molino who suffered a meniscus injury in training with his club while Greek-based winger Levi Garcia is also out through injury.
“Kevin has been distraught. He’s gone through some injuries over a period of time. He wanted to be here. The camp has been really good so far and we’re firmly focused on the task at hand.
“All the guys who have been called up have been active with their clubs in one way or the other. What we did for the locally-based players, playing the three matches (one match against Saint Martin), I thought they showed that we are fully match fit. We’re in a good place by way of match fitness heading into these games.”
See Squad List with Clubs below
