National Under 20 Men’s Head Coach Brian Williams has selected a provisional 30-man Squad for the upcoming Caribbean Football Union opening round of qualifiers towards the 2017 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Korea Republic.
Williams has been overseeing the preparations of the squad since being appointed as head coach in early April and is currently conducting sessions every week at the Ato Boldon Stadium and Manny Ramjohn Stadium. He and his technical staff which includes assistant coach Kerry Jamerson and goalkeeper coach Ross Russell, also held a screening session in Tobago recently prior to the selection of the 30-man squad which has been submitted to the CFU ahead of the competition.
A final 25-man squad will be named for the tournament which takes place in Trinidad from June 15th-19th and involves Guadeloupe, St Lucia and Turks and Caicos. The Final CFU round including the top eight teams will take place in Curacao from October 21st.
Five Caribbean teams will qualify for the CONCACAF Final round which will be contested in Costa Rica from February 17th to March 5th 2017 at the National Stadium and the Ricardo Saprissa Stadium in San Jose. The top four teams will qualify for the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Korea Republic.
“The last couple of weeks have been pretty satisfactory. As a staff we took our time to select the right players to represent the country next month. We are pretty pleased about the selection. We came down to thirty players after screening close to a hundred players. We are down to the thirty-man squad now where we are working on specifics ahead of the competition,” Williams told TTFA Media.
“Some of the specifics we are dealing with are defensive organization, proper team cohesion and looking at establishing the best starting eleven. We have been following three players from abroad who will be coming for the tournament which are Morgan Bruce from England, Noah Powder from the New York Red Bulls in the US and Jarred Dass who is doing pretty well in the US as well as Jacob Sooklal who is based in Canada,” Williams added.
The former National Team defender described the response of the players to the preparations as commendable.
“The players are petty receptive to our training. We have players currently into competition, so our training has to be methodical in how much we push them. Fitness is something we always pay a lot of attention to. There are three main areas that we want to focus on looking generally at football in the Caribbean and in Trinidad and Tobago. We are trying to increase numbers in the box when we are offensively attacking, increasing our speed of play and also improve the level of concentration during both transitions, when we lose possession and when we win the ball as well,” Williams stated.
Trinidad and Tobago U-20 Provisional Squad
Goalkeepers:
Jabari Brice (San Juan Jabloteh), Jamari Warrick, Jadiel Poon-Lewis (Queen’s Royal College), Denzil Smith (Shiva Boys Hindu College)
Defenders:
Andrew Rullow (Premier Football Academy), Kori Cupid (W-Connection), Jacob Sooklal (Durham United), Noah Powder (New York Red Bulls II)
Midfielders:
Shawndell Augustus (Central FC), Taryk Sampson (North East Stars), Tyrel Emmanuel (Shiva Boys Hindu College), Michael Basdeo (Club Sando), Keston Julien (W-Connection), Kierron Mason (W-Connection), Kareem Riley (Central FC), Yohannes Richardson (Shiva Boys Hindu College), Shane Sandy (North East Stars), Shakuille Williams (St. Benedict’s College), Quinn Rodney (Club Sando), Isaiah Garcia (W-Connection), Jarred Dass (Stony Brook University), Morgan Bruce (Stevenage Borough)
Forwards:
Nicholas Dillon (Central FC), Josh Toussaint (St. Ann’s Rangers), Jabari Mitchell (W-Connection), Isaiah Hudson (W-Connection), Rushawn Murphy (East Mucurapo Secondary School), Kathon St. Hillaire (St. Ann’s Rangers), Micah Lansiquot (St. Ann’s Rangers)