T&T footballers play Guyana in practice game.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
Trinidad and Tobago’s senior footballer, back in the country from Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Puerto Rico, will have another practice game this time against the Guyana Senior team from 9:30am at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Tuesday.
The list of players who did not make the trip to San Juan, will return to the set up and are likely to feature against the Guyanese who are preparing for upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifying action in June against the winner of Suriname/Montserrat. Guyana are coming off a 1-0 win over St Vincent and the Grenadines earlier this month courtesy a goal by Joe Public’s Gregory Richardson.
Assistant coach Anton Corneal said the exercise is solely an opportunity to get the players back into match fitness while Guyana, under Trinidadian coach Jamaal Shabazz, requested the game to assist in their preparations.
“It’s a good chance for some of our players to get some decent match practice. We took the 18 players to Puerto Rico and that proved to be a worthwhile exercise so it means now that we will try to give some of the other players in the pool a chance to get some playing time,” Corneal told TTFF Media.
T&T had three debutants in Saturday’s game – Jabloteh’s Khaleem Hyland and Defence Force’s Akile Edwards, both starters and Jabloteh striker Lester Peltier who was a second half replacement for Conrad Smith.
The line up for Saturday’s game against Puerto Rico was: Marvin Phillip, Keston Williams, Seon Power, Osei Telesford, Akile Edwards (Kern Cupid 75th), Trent Noel (capt), Kerry Baptiste (Nickcolson Thomas 64th), Khaleem Hyland (Stephan David 68th), Conrad Smith (Lester Peltier 46th) Anthony Wolfe (Andre Toussaint 58th), Jason Marcano (Christian Baptiste 46th). Goalie Cleon John was the only player not used.
Corneal added: “Getting opportunities like these to use the younger players in an international is always a plus. It was one of those games too where we decided that the exposure was necessary and we used these players along with others who just have one or two caps under their names. The three debutants I felt held their own and this will do good for their confidence and is a good sign for the future.”
Interim head coach Francisco Maturana is also eager to get down to work, indicating that he has already began drawing up plans for the preparation of the team for the rest of the 2008 calendar.
“I saw some of the players on Saturday and now we will continue to look at some others. For the game on February 6 I know some of the players from outside will be with us and of course we are also aware of more players that are overseas and we will look closely at what is available. The main thing now is the preparation and having the right attitude towards achieving success,” Maturana said.
