FOUR CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh footballers who are on the Trinidad and Tobago national team have been released by the T&T Pro League so they can join the 23-man T&T squad who leave on Monday for a one-week camp in Fort Lauderdale, USA prior to the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Angus Eve, Daurance Williams, Cyd Gray and Aurtis Whittley would have been hard-pressed to choose between club and country had the Pro League insisted that Tuesday's match between Jabloteh and Caledonia AIA/Fire would be played.
Yesterday, however, Pro League chief executive officer Dexter Skeene said that good sense had prevailed and they have postponed Jabloteh's game, although he said they lamented having to reschedule the League's fixtures.
"We continue to work with the TTFF (Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation) to make sure that we continue to contribute to the national effort. That said, they have now included a camp that was not planned for," Skeene pointed out.
Skeene further explained that the Pro League had met with the TTFF earlier this season and organised their schedule around the national team's programme of friendlies, World Cup qualifiers and the Gold Cup.
He said they were now taken aback by the planned one-week camp by the national team, prior to attending the Gold Cup, but nevertheless would again facilitate the national effort.
In League action today, Morvant-based Caledonia AIA/Fire travel to the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, hoping to do what they could not on April 19 at their Larry Gomes Stadium home base, beat Vibe CT105 W.Connection.
That day, second half goals from Atiba Charles (56th), Earl Jean (59th), and Kendall Davis (64th) were enough to give W.Connection a comfortable 3-0 win and third league victory of the season.
But having suffered successive 1-0 losses to Jabloteh in last month's T&T Pro Bowl final and also in the league competition last time out, W.Connection would appear not as imposing as in the first round when they won all their games.
Then, again, Connection are known for bouncing back from defeat with a big win and Caledonia may just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.