NEW YORK –Mexico will face host Trinidad & Tobago, Costa Rica and Canada in the first round of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship.
Honduras, which finished third in Central American qualifying, will face St. Vincent, runner-up from the Caribbean championship, in a two-leg playoff on dates yet-to-be determined.
Group B will be played at Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya, Trinidad, on the outskirts of the capital of Port-of-Spain, while Group A will be played at Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet on the island of Tobago. This is the fifth time Trinidad & Tobago has staged all or part of the CONCACAF U-20 finals. It staged consecutive championships in 1984 and 1986 and was host of one of two four-team groups in 1998 and 2001.
Match schedules have yet to be finalized, but should be announced within a week, CONCACAF General Secretary Chuck Blazer said.
The CONCACAF event will qualify four teams for the U-20 World Cup in Egypt September 23-October 16. The United States has qualified 11 times for FIFA’s premier youth event, including the last six. Mexico has qualified the second-most of any CONCACAF nation, 10 times.
Canada has advanced to the finals of the U-20 World Cup eight times, including each of the last four.
U20s & U17s draw Mexico and Costa Rica.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 and Under 17 teams will both have to do battle with Mexico and Costa Rica in their respective qualifying campaigns for the upcoming World Cups.
This was revealed as the Draws for both tournaments were held at the CONCACAF Headquarters, Trump Tower, New York on Thursday.
The Under 20 Final Round, which will be hosted in T&T from March 5-15 will see four teams qualify for the 2009 FIFA World Youth Championship in Egypt.
The hosts T&T will play all its matches at the Marvin Lee stadium in a group comprising Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada. The other group, to be played at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Tobago will see the United States, El Salvador Jamaica and the winner of the Honduras/St Vincent and the Grenadines tie. The fixtures for the two groups will be determined within the next week.
T&T U-20 head coach Zoran Vranes, in an immediate response to the draw, admitted that his team ended up in the harder of the two groups.
“I must accept that we have the harder group. Costa Rica is always a very difficult team and we know how good Mexico can be as well as Canada has a very good youth system,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
“But at the same time we have to do our best and I have the feeling that it is not beyond us to advance as one of the top two teams from the group. This group of players have played against some of these teams before at the Under 17 level and they qualified for the last Under 17 World Cup. This means that it’s nothing strange to us but we will have to play to our best ability to get to Egypt.”
Vranes leaves with the U-20 team for a ten-day training camp in Brazil on Sunday which is costing the T&T Football Federation USD 95,000
“This trip is very important to us because some of the teams we are playing there will be similar to Costa Rica and Mexico in terms of their style. A lot of work will be done to get the boys ready for the tournament and I am certain we will return to Trinidad ready to take on the other teams,” Vranes added.
The U-20 team will be without the services of striker Jam Gay who opted instead for a trial at German Second Division team Rot-Weiss Oberhausen and is expected to accompany the team on a trial in Portugal.
Team manager Chris De Silva said every effort was being made to get the best T&T team together for the tournament.
“Jamal decided to take up the offer of the trial even though coach Vranes advised him that it would still be possible to go overseas after our team made the trip to Brazil and subsequently play the tournament. But he rang us up from London saying he was on a plane to Germany. There was nothing we could do but wish him well. At the same time we have had a few of the players based in the US back with us now and every effort is being made to ensure we have the best possible squad ready for the qualifying matches,” De Silva said.
The CONCACAF U-20 Championship will determine the confederation’s four qualifiers for the FIFA U-20 World Cup Egypt 2009 from September 23 - October 16, 2009.