A Trinidad and Tobago 22-man National Under 20 squad arrived in Lanarca, Cyprus on Friday night for an eight-day live in training camp ahead of their arrival in Alexandria, Egypt for the upcoming FIFA Under 20 World Championship.
Head coach Zoran Vranes finalized the 22-man squad for the tournament this week during a camp in Antalya, Turkey which meant that he had the difficult task of cutting three players from his squad for the tournament. Those three players – forwad Trent Lougheed, defenders Jevon Morris and Nicholas Walker were the unfortunate ones. They parted ways from the rest of the team in London on Friday, heading back to Port of Spain.
The U20s are coming off a 4-0 win over Turkish club Antalyaspor on Tuesday. Goals by midfielder Khaleem Hyland, Uriah Bentick, Jamal Gay and Marcus Joseph did the job for the visitors. A couple days earlier, Gay also struck a double to lead T&T to another 4-0 win over Turkish club Surilaya FC with the other goals coming from Joseph and Marvin Manswell.
T&T, captained by Leston Paul, will now look ahead to practice matches against Australia and United States in the coming days as both teams are also in Cyrprus preparing for the World Championship.
“It’s never an easy task for a coach to say to a player that he has to be left out of the squad for a World Cup. It was not easy for any of us, as coach, staff members and players,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
“Some of us even cried because we have been together for a long time, as a family and now they have to leave us because only 22 players can go to the tournament. But these are players who can still be part of the future of our football and I expect they will be back. Every player worked hard and deserved the chance, some more than others. We have selected the best squad possible and so far the preparations have gone just as we wanted. You can see the team going from strength to strength and we will work towards continuing this as we head into the tournament,” Vranes added.
T&T play their opening match against hosts Egypt on September 24 in Alexandria and the game will be aired live on TV 6.
T&T 22-Man Squad
Goalkeepers - X 3
21.Glenroy Samuel (United Petrotrin/TRI), 1.Jesse Fullerton (Nova University/USA), 22.Andre Marchan (Joe Pubic/TRI).
Defenders - X 8
19.Daneil Cyrus (Joe Public/TRI), 12.Robert Primus (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), 4.Sheldon Bateau (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), 3.Curtis Gonzales (Ma Pau SC/TRI), 15.Uriah Bentick (Liberty University/USA), 5.Akeem Adams (United Petrotrin/TRI), 2.Aubrey David (W Connection/TRI), Mikeil Williams (Ma Pau SC/TRI).
Midfielders - X 7
6.Leston Paul (capt) (University of South Flordia/USA), 8.Sean De Silva (Joe Public/TRI), 14.Jean-Luc Rochford (Joe Public/TRI), 7.Kevin Molino (Ma Pau SC/TRI), 16.Marcus Joseph (Joe Public/TRI), Khaleem Hyland (Zulte Waregem/BEL), Jake Thomson (Southampton/ENG).
Forwards - X 4
Jamal Gay (Rot Weiss Oberhausen/GER), 18.Marvin Manswell (Joe Public/TRI), 10.Quan Grosvenor (University of Connecticut/USA), 9.Juma Jamal Clarence (United Petrotrin/TRI).