HEAD-COACH Ross Russell will lead the 2010-2011 Trinidad & Tobago Pro League champions Defence Force team to Bermuda on Carnival Tuesday where they will meet Western Stars in a Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship first round match.
The last time Russell recalls Defence Force playing in a Caribbean Club Championship was in 2001 when he was still a player. Back then, current Ipswich Town (England) striker Jason Scotland was their top-scorer. The Army went on to top CFU Group B to qualify for the 2002 CONCACAF Champions Cup, along with Caribbean Group A winners W Connection.
Defence Force advanced to the CONCACAF Champions Cup where they faced eventual winners Pachuca. Defence Force won 1-0 at home, but were eliminated 4-1 on aggregate after losing the away-leg in Mexico. To date, 'Army' remains the most accomplished football club in T&T history, having won 21 league championships (two Pro League), six FA Trophy titles and two First Citizens Cups. But before winning the 2010-2011 Pro league, Defence Force had not won since taking the inaugural Pro League crown in 1991.
Defence Force (1987 and 1985) were also twice winners of the Caribbean Champions Cup, which is now the Caribbean Champions League and were runners-up in 1987 and 1988 as well.
Russell hopes that the Caribbean tournament will be the first step towards regaining former CONCACAF glory.
"It's kind of long overdue for a team accustomed to playing at CONCACAF level," Russell said. "Especially for a team accustomed to playing at that level. " Defence Force are now minus this season's top-scorer Devon Jorsling, who has picked up a contract in the United States, and they are still without their most penetrative player, Kevon Carter who is nursing a broken leg.
"We are leaving on Carnival Tuesday. We hope to go there and win or at least get a draw so that we can at least take an advantage home," Russell said. "We don't know much about who we are going to play because the original team we had to play dropped out because of financial problems, and we now have to play a third-place team. All we know is that we will be playing on an artificial surface."
During the first round of the Pro League, Defence Force finished with a hundred per cent record, winning all 10 matches played. But they slumped in the second round, losing a big lead before just limping to the title. In recent weeks Russell has been working on his team's fitness level. Russell added that they had concentrated on regaining the shape and the speed with which the team played early in the season.
"First we have to win in CFU to go to CONCACAF. So we will first concentrate on doing well in the Caribbean and then try to compete well at CONCACAF as well, because when you play football you have to test yourself at the highest level, and in this region that is at CONCACAF level," he ended.