Queen's Park after Avery.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
Trinidad and Tobago defender Avery John is set to become this country’s latest defender to join the English professional scene.
John, of American Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution, has been targeted by Queen’s Park Rangers and according to club manager John Gregory, will be signed on January 2 just as the transfer window opens.
John had been on trial at Leeds United but was unsuccessful. However soon after Queen’s Park of the Championship Division took note of him. Over the last couple of weeks, the club’s administration had been in contact with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, requesting information on John and his overall international appearance status to which the TTFF cooperated.
Sampsa Timoska, of Finnish club MyPa is also expected to sign with Queen’s Park and along with John could make his debut for the club in the FA Cup third-round tie against Carlos Edwards’ Luton Town on January 6.
“We have a couple of people in mind who are ready to come straight in, and they will be registered on January 2. I think they will enhance the squad. There is no point bringing someone in if he is not better than what we have, because we have 35 professionals,” said Gregory who once managed Dwight Yorke at Aston Villa.
Meantime, Sunderland, club of Yorke, has expressed interest in the services of Edwards. The former Wrexham player is now being targeted by Celtic, Newcastle United, Charlton Athletic, Watford and Birmingham City.
Sunderland manager Roy Keane added “Carlos Edwards is a player that I admire and he is someone I would like to add to the squad. We do intend to follow up our interest but it would be premature to assume that anything will definitely happen in that direction. We'll have to see what Luton's position is on the matter but he is someone we're interested in, yes."
It is also understood that St Johnstone striker Jason Scotland has received interest from and English club but time will tell what the former Defence Force striker decides on. And striker Stern John has been offered a contract extension at Coventry City but is still undecided. John has also been reportedly offered a lucrative deal by Israeli club Beitar Jerusalem.
News from the 28th of December 2006.
Spann to miss Digicel Cup with shoulder injury.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
National team head coach Wim Rijsbergen faces the possibility of contesting the Digicel Caribbean Cup without the services of midfielder Silvio Spann.
The former Japan-based midfielder rejoined the national team for training earlier this month upon a recall but a reoccurring shoulder problem is back and has forced him out of the last few sessions. According to assistant coach Anton Corneal, it is likely that the player will have to undergo operation and will not be available for selection.
US-based player Joel Bailey also attempted to make a full recovery comeback in training at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Wednesday after damaging his ankle in a scrimmage last week. However, once again he pulled up.
“He (Bailey) tried to make it back out after being cleared by the medics but again he had a problem and had to cut short,” Corneal said. “Spann’s case is unfortunate. He needs to operate on it and time is not on his side because we are less than two weeks away from the start of the competition.”
Corneal conducted the session on Wednesday as Rijsbergen is out of the country until next week. Initially the squad was expected to be named this week but that has now been pushed back until early next month as the team continues to prepare for the January 12 opener against Barbados at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
“The preparation continues and there are certain aspects of it that we are currently undergoing and of course more will happen as the first game approaches. The final squad will be decided as we continue to work with the players available to us. Obviously everyone wants to give their best showing because the squad has to be cut and there will be playing who will be left out.” Corneal told TTFF Media.
There has been an absence of CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh players after the club relayed to Rijsbergen late last week that it needed its players from January 10 for training ahead of the Caribbean Club Championship final round later in the month. That matter is currently being discussed with aim of a resolution in the not too distant future.
Meantime, Haiti arrived in the country on Wednesday to contest Group J of the qualifying phase for the final spot in the Finals.
With Bermuda, Haiti and the Dominican Republic all qualifying as third placed teams in the three second round groups of the Digicel Cup played in November, the winning side will be the eight and final team to qualify.
All games will take place at the Hasley Crawford Stadium.
Group H qualifiers The Dominican Republic will be first to play against Haiti at 5pm) on January 5th.
Having impressed in their opening Group D and topping ahead of St Vincent and Grenadines and eliminating Jamaica , Haiti were favorites to qualify automatically to the Digicel finals but in the end had to rely on a last minute equalizer against Suriname in their second round Group I to qualify in third position.
The Dominican Republic will play two days later against Group G qualifiers Bermuda on Sunday January 7th with a 4pm (16.00) kick off. Both of these sides have met already this tournament in their Group C qualifying game where Bermuda took the honors winning on a 3-1 scoreline.
News from the 23rd of December 2006.
Noreiga aims for final Digicel pick.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
The National Team will resume preparations next Wednesday entering 2007 gearing up for the Digicel Caribbean Cup which will be played off here in Trinidad and Tobago with eight nations vying for the regional title.
Over the last week, head coach Wim Rijsbergen has been overseeing training with some 42 players at the Ato Boldon Stadium and he is expected to cut the squad by half for training next week and in early January as T&T prepares for its opening Digicel Cup fixture against Barbados on January 12 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
The T&T coaching staff which also includes Anton Corneal, Jan Van Deinsen and Brian Williams also got to see the senior players up against a team of visiting US-College players as well as local-based ones in a couple of 30-minute scrimmages on Thursday. The national team players were rotated as players were observed in different positions and roles.
Among those being assessed by Rijsbergen and his staff is defender Anthony Noreiga who is coming off his first season with Vancouver Whitecaps in the American A-League and was also in Leo Beenhakker’s team for the 2-0 win over Iceland last February. Since then, this is Noreiga’s first return to the national set up and he is committed to sealing a place in the final squad.
“It was a major opportunity to be able to work with our World Cup players and being in the mix so close before the World Cup and that is something that I don’t intend to let go by easily. That experience helped be better my awareness of what is required at that level of the game. Even though I didn’t get into the final squad I think there were a lot of positives I got out of it and now with the Digicel Cup coming up, I hope I can get into the team and keep on striving for better things. But seeing that I was considered in February, I think that should mean I am in with a chance for 2010 and I want to make that happen,” Noreiga told TTFF Media.
The former Princes Town Senior Comprehensive standout is unattached at the moment but hopes to maybe go back to the US for next season even though there may also be a couple options in Europe. He had also been with Kansas City Wizards early in the season.
“The last season was pretty decent. We won the championship but I didn’t play too much coming down to the playoffs. I was a rookie so playing 13 games for them wasn’t bad. I had an option for a one year extension but I’ll see what comes up for next year. I was also part of the Kansas Wizards for preseason but at the time I would have been counted as a senior international after getting into the Trinidad team and they were looking for someone with more experience. The next best option was Vancouver after that,” he added.
Noreiga will now be aiming to increase his international caps by representing T&T in the Digicel Cup come next month. He is among other US-based players such as Wizards striker Scott Sealy and Liberty College striker Darryl Roberts, Osei Telesford, Leslie Fitzpatrick along with a host of home-based players vying for selection to play in the Digicel Cup. There was a minor hiccup with the Jabloteh players but they are expected to rejoin training next week.
News from the 20th of December 2006.
All players available as CFU Club Championships shift to Jan.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
National Head coach Wim Rijsbergen will get back his full compliment of players from CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh and W Connection for training this week after it was determined that the Caribbean Club Championships matches will be pushed back to late January.
On Monday, Rijsbergen found out that he would have to release the players from both clubs due to fixtures this week but now both Connection and Jabloteh will face Jamaica’s Harbour View and Haiti’s Baltimore Sportif respectively on January 26. The grand final of the CFU Club Championship will be played on January 28 at a venue to be announced.
Preparations for the team’s participation at the Digicel Caribbean Cup from January 12 continued at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Tuesday morning but without the players from the two local powerhouses. For the remainder of the week though, Rijsbergen can expect to have the likes of Aurtis Whitley, Kerry Baptiste, Keyeno Thomas, Trent Noel, Anthony and Glenton Wolfe, Silvio Spann, Cyd Gray, Nigel Daniel and Jan Michael Williams back in the squad.
Assistant coach Anton Corneal relayed that the session on Tuesday was used to have a closer look at the individuals.
“It was a basic session more to see what some of the players have to offer because there are those who are coming into the squad for the first time,” he said. “Now that we expect to get the players from the two clubs available again, we will be pushing on with preparations,” he added.
Meantime, Corneal is also overseeing the preparations of the National Under 17 team ahead of the final CONCACAF final round next April.
The Under 17s have been training at the Ato Boldon Stadium prior to the Senior Team sessions. So far, two players from the Colleges League have been added to the roster along with three players each from the United States and Canada.
U17s, we actually taking a lot of six players, three from Canada and three from US, two boys out of the Colleges League.
“We have been back training for the past couple weeks and we now have six players from North America who have made their way here just to try out for the team so we will be having a good look at them to see how they add to the set up we have now,” Corneal told TTFF Media.
“We will continue training through the Christmas break and then into January and February when we hope to then get some international exposure,” Corneal said. He mentioned that the team has been invited to a triangular tournament in Honduras in February and will consider the possibility of traveling there for the warm up matches before going into qualification for a spot in the FIFA Under 17 World Championship 2007 in Korea.
News from the 19th of December 2006.
Rijsbergen assesses players before Digicel Cup.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
National head coach Wim Rijsbergen got a near to full turn out of players for day one of preparations at the Ato Boldon Stadium ahead of Trinidad and Tobago's opening Digicel Caribbean Cup fixture against Barbados at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on January 12.
An additional three names were added to the initial 41-man squad called by the Dutchman and his staff but he still didn't have full numbers as some faces were missing and W Connection midfielder took the day off to receive treatment on his shoulder. The three new players called were University of Connecticut defender Julius James, Anthony Wolfe and American-based player Joel Bailey.
The latter had been called earlier in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers under former coach Bertille St Clair and then later during Leo Beenhakker's period but never made it due to injury problems. Well on Monday, that unfortunate trend continued as the former Naparima College standout limped off the field in pain due to a foot injury sustained in a scrimmage.
Rijsbergen was also unpleased to learn that he would on Tuesday have to release the players of CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh and W Connection due to their CFU Club Championship matches later this month.
“It's difficult because now we have to release all these players from the second day of training and we planned this thing out to go in accordance with the availability of the players,” Rijsbergen told TTFF Media. “Now we have to plan to suit this change again and remember the dates for the Digicel Cup were brought up from the initial dates which were supposed to be later in January. But apart from that, we will get on with the job. We have some new faces we have called as well as some who have been around before and we will assess them and then try to make th right decisions for the team for the Digicel Cup,” he added.
Coaches also assisting Rijsbergen were Anton Corneal, Brian Williams, Michael Maurice and Jan Van Deinsen.
Back in the mix among the players was Leslie “Tiger Fitzpatrick who recently joined American A-League team Puerto Rico Islanders, World Cup team midfielder Densill Theobald, Scott Sealy, Kerwyn Jemmott, Gary Glasgow, Glenton Wolfe, Osei Telesford, Darryl Roberts and Duarance Williams among others. The squad will continue to train at the Ato Boldon Stadium and then a final team will be selected later in the month to begin final preparations for the Digicel Cup.
News from the 14th of December 2006.
Club or country decision for Stern.
By: Andy Turner (Coventry Telegraph).
Micky Adams is hoping Stern John will reassess his Trinidad and Tobago commitments as he thinks over his future at Coventry City.
The manager has not told the striker to quit playing for his country but he clearly thinks that, like Robert Page, his club career will greatly benefit from retirement from the international set-up.
"Stern has always struggled because of the fact that Trinidad have had so many games and he has always been playing catch-up, to a degree, in terms of his fitness because he misses so much training because of being on aeroplanes," said the City boss.
He is hoping to secure John's services on a new contract to take him beyond the summer when he would otherwise be able to leave the Ricoh Arena on a free transfer.
"He has got 100 caps now and given his all to his country and I think he realises that he has got a few more years left in the game and he has really got to establish himself somewhere, so why not do it at a place where he feels comfortable?
"I would not ask him to stop playing international football. It is a great for him to play for his national side but that will be his decision, as it was for Robert Page."
John's story in his first three seasons at Coventry City is one of a struggle to win over the fans, both here and at Derby County where he got a hard time on loan.
But he has steadily achieved that with his goals, superb ball control and increasingly committed performances to reach a stage where the supporters recently sang his name from the stands, calling for him to go on as a substitute.
"I always go back to my first few weeks and months here at Coventry when the fans were screaming that they wanted him off the pitch when he got booked.
"It is something I have never known before, except for possibly Greg Downs when I played here, but that was me shouting for him to come off!" said Adams, who is confident contract negotiations are going well.
"These things take time.
"I have got a lot of players out of contract in the summer but it is not a panic situation.
"We have expressed a desire for him to stay and Stern and his agent have expressed a desire to talk."
Stern John and his international teammates are still locked in a dispute with their country's football federation over payments they say they are due from the World Cup.
However, the matter is now in the hands of their lawyers and for the time being the players have called off their collective threat to quit the international set-up.
