Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers will be seeking a second straight blow out of St Vincent and the Grenadines when both teams meet in their return leg Caribbean Football Union Under 20 world qualifier at the Marvin Lee Stadium from 7pm on Wednesday.
The Zoran Vranes coached-team is coming off a convincing 8-0 win over the Vincentians but will want to keep atop their game as they look ahead to the Concacaf final round in Guatemala next April.
One player who is sure to want to feature will be W Connection striker Shahdon Winchester who was left out of the Senior Men’s team for the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals in Martinque.
Winchester is likely to return to Scottish club Glasgow Celtic in January and will be hoping to gather all the international experience available to him at this time.
Winchester netted a double in the 8-0 win while fellow striker Jerrel Britto who netted a hattrick will keen to add to his tally. Britto himself is hopeful of going overseas again after his previous stint with English club Portsmouth.
“I think we have showed that we can play quality football and we want to maintain this form,” Britto told TTFF Media.
“We played for each other and being able to score a hattrick which helped the team get the victory meant a lot to me. We know that we have to take every game seriously and we will definitely want to win this second game and keep our confidence at a high level.
I want to keep scoring as much goals as I can so I don’t intend to take the match for granted. We have to keep getting better because the next stage will be tough as the other teams in Concacaf will be ready for battle and just like us, they all want to qualify for the World Cup in Colombia,” Britto added.
Vranes indicated that he could change up his starting eleven for Wednesday’s match.
“Of course I want to try and give every player the opportunity to play at this level. We will see how this goes but of course we will not risk the result.
We will play to get a winning result and to ensure whatever we do is a positive move in relation to our preparations for the future,” added Vranes who led T&T to the 2009 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Egypt.
Sheldon Bateau is the team’ captain and has Marcus Joseph who also appeared at the 2009 Finals as one of his experienced teammates in the current side.
Caribbean rivals Jamaica and Cuba have already qualified for the Concacaf finals. Craig Foster scored a pair of goals in the first 26 minutes to lead Jamaica to a 2-0 victory over Guyana to book their spot.
Jamaica finished atop Caribbean Group C with three wins in as many games and outscoring its opponents 21-1. Foster lead the way for Jamaica with eight goals - including three in a 13-0 rout of the U.S. Virgin Islands on Friday.
The victory put Jamaica with host Guatemala and North American entrants Canada, Mexico and the United States as well as Cuba through to the 12-team tournament in April 2011.