Trinidad and Tobago’ footballers had to journey for one hour for their first training session on Tuesday morning at the Agustin Miquita Stadium which was the venue for this country’s 0-0 draw with a warm up encounter against Panama in 2001.
Back then, the match was a build up for T&T’s final round 2002 World Cup qualifier against Honduras and it was also one in which Dwight Yorke and Anthony Rougier failed to show up for. Subsequently, Yorke and Rougier were dropped from the squad to face th Hondurans and there was also threats from Russell Latapy and other players to sit out the match until a late resolution saw the players back in the squad. T&T went on to lose to Honduras 4-2 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium and the campaign went downhill from then.
This time around, the story turns out ironic. Once again, the “Warriors” are preparing for a vital match. But at the same time, Russell Latapy was the most senior player walking into the Riande Aeropuerto Hotel at around 11pm on Monday night as Trinidad and Tobago’s senior team made a quiet entry into Panama City.
The team bus passed over a tributary to the Panama Canal on the way to the Miguita Stadium where the conditions were not the best with high grass and uneven surface as well as unsuitable changing rooms. But it was the only half decent one available for the morning period other than the National Stadium (a baseball venue) which is used by the Panamanian team in the morning. The match venue is also not available until Friday.
“The preparation goes on and we are here to do our best before this match on Saturday,” Beenhakker told TTFF Media. “We have a match in which we must prepare to win. There’s no guarantee of what is going to happen this weekend but at least we must do our best to get what we want. So far we will be doing everything to ensure this.”
A second session was held on Tuesday evening at the National Stadium. The team is not expected to train at the Estadio Rommel Fernández, venue for Saturday’s encounter, until Friday evening. But they do have the National Stadium for both the morning and evening sessions on Wednesday.
The luggage belonging to Latapy, Marvin Andrews and Densill Theobald did not arrive in Panama but should be here by Wednesday. “Latas” eventually used a pair of boots belonging to assistant coach Wim Risjbergen for training on Tuesday. “It was a couple inches bigger maybe,” Latapy joked. “But it did the job in training so that’s not a problem,” he added with his trademark smile and wink of the eye.
T&T's evening session was more intense as Beenhakker overlooked an eleven vs eleven scrimmage under cool conditions on a lush surface.