T&T National Under 20 head coach Zoran Vranes is appealing to some of the clubs in the T&T Pro League to co-operate with the country’s programme for the 2011 Fifa Under 20 World Cup qualifying campaign a bit more.
Initially the T&T team was scheduled to travel to Suriname on Sunday for a four-day live in camp prior to the World Cup qualifying match against the hosts on December 10.
However, due to financial constraints the TTFF will send the team to Suriname only on Wednesday midnight and will arrive at 4 am which allows the time for possibly one session on the eve of the match.
And now Vranes is unlikely to have a full compliment of players for training at home over the next two-three days due to players from W Connection, San Juan Jabloteh and Joe Public being asked by their respective club managements to stay away from national team training due to their competitive schedule.
“It’s a problem for me because initially we asked to go to Suriname a few days in advance to prepare for this World Cup qualifier and the players were released but now because we are not travelling until Wednesday night, the clubs Joe Public, W Connection and Jabloteh are unwilling to release the players for training which means that we will not have a training for three days.
“Then we arrive early on Thursday morning and play the next day All I am asking is a for a little cooperation from the clubs to allow the players to train with the national team this week before we depart for Suriname. This is not a little friendly match… this is a World Cup qualifying match,” said Vranes.
“We have witnessed what went wrong with the senior team and there are all sorts of talk about why the team didn’t progress but for serious matches you need to prepare seriously and we cannot afford to take the game in Suriname lightly,” Vranes added.
Among the key T&T players attached to the senior teams of the three mentioned clubs are prolific scorer Jerrel Britto and team captain Sheldon Bateau (Jabloteh), Joevin Jones and Shahdon Winchester (W Connection) and Marcus Joseph and Kenaz Williams of Joe Public.
T&T has to get past Suriname in order to qualify for the Concacaf Final Round of qualification for the 2011 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Colombia. Among the teams already through to the final Concacaf stage include Jamaica, USA, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Cuba and Panama.