Source: Trinidad ExpressIt's the match of a lifetime when Trinidad and Tobago come up against England in their second Group B encounter at the 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany next June.
Trinidad and Tobago have never faced England and since 1985 have only met one of the other teams in the group, Paraguay.
In March 1989, the countries locked horns in two friendly fixtures, which ended 2-2 and 1-1.
T&T open their World Cup campaign on June 10 against Sweden.
 T&T team manager Bruce Aanensen, along with assistant George Joseph and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) media officer Shaun Fuentes travelled by train for three hours from Leipzig along with their FIFA liaison officer, Dutchman Mark Boss, to Nuremberg to inspect the match venue for the fixture against England, the Nuremberg Franken-Stadium, which by the match date on June 15 at 6 p.m. (German time) will have a purchasable ticket capacity of 32,341, of which the T&T Football Federation will be entitled to eight per cent of tickets, the same as the English FA.
The total seating capacity of the stadium is 36,898 but will be downgraded to comply with FIFA directives.
The Nuremberg venue will also host the Mexico-Iran, Japan-Croatia and USA-Ghana encounters.
 The venue's last big outing was the 2005 Confederations Cup clash between Germany and Brazil and it also hosted the Germany versus Argentina match.
The nearby Hilton Hotel, less than ten minutes' drive away, which T&T will be staying at for the match, also hosted the Argentines earlier this year.
 And the T&T management team was scheduled to visit the Westfalen Stadium in Dortmund yesterday morning.
That venue will host T&T's opening match against Sweden, also with a 6 p.m. kickoff.
For the Group stage matches like that of T&T's clash with the Swedes, there will be a purchasable ticket capacity of 50,768 and like all Group matches for the teams, T&T will be entitled to eight per cent of those tickets.
 Aanensen and company will also visit the Fritz-Walter Stadium in Kaiserslautern which will be the venue for T&T's final group fixture against Paraguay on June 20 at 9 p.m. That affair will have a purchasable ticket capacity of 41,513.
 T&T's hotel for that encounter, the Dorint Kongress in Mannheim, was already inspected by Aanensen and Joseph on Saturday night.
 "So far we are just ensuring that all the conditions are what we want for the team for these matches and they have been satisfactory. It's just a case of us putting the final arrangements in place, like sorting out the room bookings, ensuring the bedrooms, dining and fitness areas are fine, seeing that the training pitches are what we expect and that other things like transportation are up to standard," Aanensen told Fuentes.
 While Aanensen and company kept to their hectic schedule on Saturday, T&T head coach Leo Beenhakker and assistant Wim Rijsbergen were heading to Austria to finalise a training site there for the build-up to the World Cup and they will then return to Germany today to accompany the current T&T team staff on a visit to the training base camp in Rotenberg.
 T&TFF special adviser Jack Warner left for Port of Spain on Saturday along with Federation president Oliver Camps and Warner maintained that all will be done to ensure that T&T's conditions are first class for their World Cup preparation and participation.
"They will have the works, from business class travel, to top-of-the-line treatment at the hotels and the venues from the Local Organising Committee officers, to even having their own chef with them throughout," Warner said.
"We have, of course, several things to look after but we shall leave nothing short of top-class.
After all, we are in a top-class group with England and the others and we must ensure that we are well represented and, mark my word, we will be a true team of spirit. I repeat, we shall be the smallest nation with the biggest passion in this World Cup."
Also on Saturday, the FIFA information office in Germany announced further details about general ticketing sales. The third sales period for the 2006 World Cup will begin today with 250,000 more tickets going on sale. The page on
www.FIFAworldcup.com containing the order form will be re-launched at midday, and tickets will be available for ordering until January 15, 2006. As with the first sales period, the tickets will be distributed after a ballot, since it is assumed that demand will outweigh supply.
The order in which the bookings are received will have no bearing on the distribution of the tickets.
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TT men qualify for 2007 World cup in Austria The Trinidad and Tobago men's hockey team qualified for the 2007 Indoor Hockey World Cup to be held in Austria when they defeated the USA Saturday evening.
The victory was by a margin of 5-4 and came in extra time of the semi-final match of the Pan American Hockey Federation (PAHF) Third Indoor Pan American Cup that concluded yesterday in Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
However, the T&T men lost in a close battle in the final against hosts Canada 5-3.
On Saturday evening in the game against the USA, the match was tied 4-4 at the end of regulation time before Trinidad and Tobago's Dwayne Quan Chan netted the winner.
Earlier Alan Young, Dillett Gilkes, Raphael Govia and Wayne Leggerton had been the T&T goalscorers.
And with their dreams of qualifying for the World Cup dashed, the T&T women went on to clinch third spot in the PAHF tournament with a 8-0 drubbing of Venezuela.
Nicole Aming and Christin Thompson both scored doubles, while Yesenia Luces figured prominently with a hat-trick aand Christina Abreu notched the other item for the Trinidad and Tobago women.
