Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior team will have a morning training session at the Chile’s football Federation training centre in Santiago on Tuesday morning before journeying by plane to Iquique later in the day for Wednesday’s friendly international with Chile’s Senior team.
The Russell Latapy-led team arrived in Chile at 7pm on Monday night via Caracas and checked in at the Intercontinental Hotel in Santiago, a some 30 minutes away from the airport.
Conditions were relatively calm despite there being an earthquake reported to be of a 6.4 magnitude which struck 109 kms northwest of the southern city of Temuco on Sunday. Chile’s Navy said there were no Tsunami warnings.
Wednesday’s game itself is expected to attract a full turn out of fans all looking for every opportunity to get close to its national team before it heads off to the World Cup in South Africa next month.
Head coach Marcelo Bielsa named a 16-man squad on Sunday for the encounter and has included three overseas-based players including Argentine based duo Gary Medel of Boca Juniors and Emiliano Hernandez of Argentinos Juniors and Pedro Morales of Dinamo Zagreb.
“It’s a match that we are looking for because it will serve well in our preparation for the games in South Africa, particularly against Honduras which is a team Trinidad and Tobago is familiar with in their region,” Bielsa said.
“I don’t expect Trinidad will give us an easy encounter but it’s important for us to perform at a top level, similar to what I will expect in the World Cup from my players.”
TTFF technical director Lincoln Phillips, who travelled with the team, is also of the impression that the game is a handy one for both teams.
“It’s a good date for Chile because they are getting ready to go to a World Cup and for us because we are building again for the World Cup that will come after South Africa in 2014,” Phillips told TTFF Media.
“We know they (Chile) are an excellent team and we are a young team and Russell has them playing towards a plan. We are working towards having the team play to that plan as best as possible. But it will not be easy against a team like Chile at this point in time just before the head off for a World Cup.
“We will see how well our players have taken to the approach and how he (Russell) wants them to play. It’s a great opportunity to test this against a World Class team but again we cannot expect a complete turnaround under the circumstances of where Chile is at at the moment and also the fact that we have a young team.
We will contest the ball in the middle third of the field and it will be interesting to see how we show up. Russell has constantly been speaking to his players both in groups and individually, especially the younger ones, and they will be striving towards executing the game plan as is expected of them,” Phillips continued.
Chile Squad
Goalkeepers: Luis Marin (Union Espanola) and Chistopher Toselli (Universidad Catolica)
Defenders: Hans Martinez (Universidad Catolica), Rafael Caroca (Colo Colo), Sebastian Toro (Colo Colo), Roberto Cereceda (Colo Colo) and Carlos Labrin (Huachipato)
Midfielders: Fernando Meneses (Universidad Catolica), Jose Pedro Fuenzalida (Colo Colo), Rodrigo Millar (Colo Colo), Gary Medel (Boca Juniors; Argentina), Pedro Morales (Dinamo Zagreb; Croacia) and Kevin Hartbottle (O’ Higgins)
Forwards: Emilio Hernandez (Argentinos Juniors; Argentina), Daud Gazale (Huachipato) and Francisco Pizarro (Universidad Catolica).