TRINIDAD and Tobago's head coach Brazilian Professor Rene Simoes has likened today's opening FIFA Under-17 World Championship game against Croatia to that of a boxing match with Mike Tyson.
Simoes said because the technical staff are looking at the game like this, they will have to rumble even harder to prevent Tyson from knocking them down.
"This game looks like I am fighting Mike Tyson, you know how hard he hits, so I have to close all doors and not let him hit us. I have to knock him down," Simoes said.
The Group "A" match kicks off at 1 pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, following a Carnival-type opening ceremony, set to begin at 11.30 am.
For today's proceedings, patrons will have to pay $60 for covered stands and $40 for uncovered stands.
During the group matches, an admission fee of $10 will be charged for uncovered stands and $20 for covered, while for the semifinals and finals on September 30, there will be a charge of $60 and $40 for covered and uncovered stands respectively.
Simoes, first coach to lead an English-speaking Caribbean to the FIFA World Cup with Jamaica in 1998, admitted the Croatians are ahead of Team 2001 in terms of preparation, but he is banking on his players to play as a unit to produce the best possible result.
"Only tomorrow (today) we will know how prepared we really are," Simoes said.
Despite injury concerns to strikers Nkosi Blackman and Jerol Forbes, Simoes said all his players were fit and ready and the mood in the camp was excellent.
He urged members of the public to come out and wear the national colours in support of captain Roderick Anthony's team.
Croatia's manager Mladen Ivancic said positive results were very important to his team in this opening game.
Ivancic said his team was well-prepared and is ready to put its best foot forward. The only problem, he said, was the weather conditions which affected yesterday's practise session. He also said the team will be pressured because it expects a lot of support for the home team.
"But I'm sure we will overcome the pressures," Ivancic said, adding that as part of their training, they visited the zoo.Croatia earned the right to this competition by reaching the semifinals of the European U-16 Championship in England and later winning the third place match, while the local team qualified by virtue of being the hosts.
Both teams held short training stints yesterday.
Defending champions Brazil and Australia are also contenders in that group.
Croatia are looking to their main striker Ivan Grivicic to score their goals, having tallied 11 goals in the past year, including three in as many matches during preliminary qualifying in Greece and two at the European Championships in England last April.
The junior Soca Warriors will also have to watch Niko Kranjcar, recognised as the most talented player on the squad and Drago Papa of Dinamo Zagreb along with Stuttgart's Darko Kresic.