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Tue, Mar

Soca Warriors get UAE test today.
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Shel­don Bateau, the T&T mid­field­er has said in spite of chal­lenges faced by the na­tion­al team ahead of to­day's in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly en­counter with the Unit­ed Arab Emi­rates in Girona, Spain, the na­tion­al team will be­gin its quest to put T&T back on the map in world foot­ball.

He said while this can­not be achieved in one match, it will be­gin to­day. The T&T team missed three days to get in much-need­ed prac­tice since the team's ar­rival on Mon­day, due to un­ful­filled promis­es by the match agent.

The team was ex­pect­ed to train at a Barcelona pitch up­on ar­rival Mon­day but this nev­er ma­te­ri­al­ized. And on Tues­day the team again could not take the pitch as the agent failed to make con­tact with team of­fi­cials. How­ev­er, yes­ter­day Bateau said the team which is a young one has al­ready placed all the ob­sta­cles be­hind it and just wants to play foot­ball.

'Re­gard­less of what hap­pens they are will­ing to fight, ig­nore it all and just play foot­ball' Bateau said.

He added 'They are aware that they are not on­ly play­ing for them­selves but for an en­tire coun­try. We plan to give of our best and come out vic­to­ri­ous. "

How­ev­er, he was quick to note that the game will be no easy task for them, say­ing both he and Khaleem Hy­land know some of the play­ers from UAE and they will be a force to be reck­oned with.

He be­lieves the match will pro­vide an op­por­tu­ni­ty for his play­ers to re­assem­ble af­ter the failed World Cup qual­i­fiers.