Trinidad and Tobago Men’s Under 20 team will face Panama Under 20s in the opening game of the invitational tournament hosted by the Venezuela Football Federation at the Cachamay Stadium in Puerto Ordaz from 4pm on Wednesday.
The 21-member team under head coach Zoran Vranes arrived safely there on Sunday evening and had one session on the training pitch of the Cachamay Stadium on Monday.
All players remain injury free and defender Akeem Adams did train with the squad after flying on from his trial with MLS Club Seattle Sounders.
“We had a good session at the Stadium training pitch and now the players are beginning to understand a little more their roles in the different positions.
We had one game in Guyana but this is their first main outing away from home because the teams are of a higher level and for many of the players except for those from the last World Cup… it’s the first opportunity to play against teams like these,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
San Juan Jabloteh forward Vernell Ramirez described Monday’s training session as one which the players lifted their level in anticipation of Wednesday’s encounter.
“The team was very sharp in training for the first time in a while. For the past few games our finishing has been poor but there was a big improvement in the session today and hopefully we can take it into the matches coming up,” Ramirez said.
“We want to start with a win and goals win matches and we also need to be tidy in defense too.”
T&T’s game against Panama will be the first of a triple header at the 41,600-seater venue which was refurbished for the 2007 Copa America. Cameroon faces Ecuador and Venezuela meets Nicaragua in the other matches.
T&T will come up against Cameroon on October 22, Ecuador (October 24), Venezuela (October 26) Nicaragua on October 28. The team will then return home to play their opening Caribbean Football Union 2011 Under 20 World Cup qualifier against St Vincent/Grenadines in early November.
All participating teams in the invitation tournament are all preparing for the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Colombia.
Full Fixtures:
20-Oct-2010 4:00 PM, T&T vs Panama, Estadio Cachamay
22-Oct-2010 6:00 PM, T&T vs Cameroon, Estadio Cachamay
24-Oct-2010 6:00 PM, T&T vs Ecuador, Estadio Ricardo Tulio Maya
26-Oct-2010 8:00 PM, T&T vs Venezuela, Estadio Cachamay
28-Oct-2010 4:00 PM, T&T vs Nicaragua, Estadio Cachamay