T&T U-17s meet Jamaica in first friendly

T&T U-17s meet Jamaica in first friendly

Trinidad and Tobago’s U-17 Men’s team will face Jamaica’s U-17s in the first of two friendlies from 5pm TT on Friday at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at the Jamaica Football Federation’s Technical Centre.

The T&T squad, under head coach Shawn Cooper, arrived in Kingston on Wednesday afternoon and had its first session at the JFF venue prior to a final session on Thursday. Both teams are preparing for their 2025 CONCACAF Men’s Under 17 World Cup qualifying matches.

“It’s a good first outing for the boys because as I mentioned before this is the first international game and first time traveling overseas in a national team for several of the players we have brought on this trip,” Cooper told TTFA Media.

“We know how solid the Jamaica program is and playing these sort of games is definitely a good exercise for us. Their Under 18 team is just coming off a UEFA tournament in Turkey where they played teams such as Ecuador, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. So for us, this is the start and we are having ongoing dialogue with the TTFA heads to incorporate similar exercises in our youth programs.

Looking ahead to the match itself, Cooper added that the emphasis would be on game understanding. “It is a practice match but we also know that whenever these two nations meet at any level, there is always a bit more to it. I will be looking to see how our players respond to instructions, our approach and what we are asking of them. Of course we want to expose as many of the players as well. The important thing for me will be to see how they adjust to the different phases of the match,” Cooper said.

Both teams will meet again on Sunday at 10am at the JFF Technical Centre.