Despite challenges, T&T's Beach Soccer coach Ramiro Amarelle is confident the team can do well at the 2021 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship in Costa Rica, next month.
The Spanish-born coach has been working hard with a talented bunch of players whom he described as experienced with a lot of quality, and possess a good attitude.
Amarelle has highlighted a number of areas that need work on ahead of the championship, such as communication and their style of play, which he said he could not elaborate on, as fans will see it during the competition.
T&T has been drawn in Group C of the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championships. T&T will face the USA, hosts Costa Rica and the Turks and Caicos Islands in the championships carded for Alajuela, Costa Rica from May 17-23. The USA made it to the finals of the 2019 tournament in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Group A is made up of defending champions Mexico, Panama, Guadeloupe, and Belize, while Group B comprises El Salvador, Bahamas, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic.
The top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed teams advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament. T&T must reach the finals of the tournament to qualify for the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia.
On Wednesday, Amarelle said his group of players has shown the ability and attitude to create a strong programme for the long term.
Amarelle has also seen welcomed improvement in communication, noting that once the communication area is worked out, then teammates will be able to talk to teammates during the game, teammates will be able to correct teammates and they can pass instructions during dead-ball or a wall situation.
With a team filled with players equipped with several years of experience, as well as some inexperienced ones, Amarelle said once they can get the younger players to produce, then he expects that his charges will do much better than they expected to do at the tournament.
He told TTFA Media that he is expecting no easy game at the tournament. He explained that his players will be going into the competition hoping to do the right thing and hoping to win every match that they play.