Clarence added to T&T roster ahead of Reggae Boyz clash.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF Media).
Turkish-based National Under 23 striker Juma Clarence has been invited by head coach Russell Latapy to join the current squad in training for the August 11 friendly international against Jamaica at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
Clarence is among the squad of players which includes the same names that were involved in the 4-1 victory over Antigua/Barbuda last month with former English-based goalkeeper Clayton Ince also involved in the training session at the Macoya venue on Monday. Ince has been assisting as the goalkeeper coach with the National Under 23 and Under 20 teams for the past few weeks.
Clarence, scorer of T&T’s goal in the 2-1 loss to Italy at last year’s FIFA Under 20 World Cup, came on in the second half of the T&T Olympic’s team’s 2-1 win over the Antiguans last month.
Manager David Muhammad explained that the inclement weather conditions did put a slight hamper on the training on Monday but the squad will be back to normal on Tuesday.
“The heavy rains did not allow us to have the kind of full training session today but the players are all available from the last game and everyone will continue to training in the build up to the match against Jamaica. We have added Juma Clarence to the training squad and Clayton Ince is also training with us. Clayton has a vast amount of experience is certainly a good addition and should be a welcomed one for our other just as valuable goalkeepers in Marvin Phillip and Jan Michael Williams,” Muhammad told TTFF Media.
“The game is definitely an important one to both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago as we have seen that the Jamaica team has been in constant training and their head coach Theodore Whitmore has indicated by way of his comments in the Press that he is hoping to pull off a victory over us because of the bragging rights involved in such a match and of course both teams are preparing for competitive matches later in the year.”
Meantime the” Reggae Boyz yesterday made hard work of it, but still managed to beat a Trelawny All-Stars team 3-1 in another of their practice games on Sunday ahead of their departure for Port of Spain next week, according to The Gleaner.
Kavin Bryan opened the scoring for the locally based Reggae Boyz in the 32nd minute before substitutes Navion Boyd in the 80th and Andrae Campbell in the 90th added some respectability to the score.
Jamaican head coach Theodore Whitmore added :"It was a practice game in which we looked at a number of players, so both halves would not have looked the same," Whitmore said of the game which featured a much-improved second half which had nine changes for the Reggae Boyz.
"I think it was a fairly good workout and a chance to look at a number of players. We have a game coming up against Trinidad and Tobago, so it is continuous preparation. The Digicel Caribbean Cup is coming up so it was also another opportunity to look at players," he said.
