Trinidad and Tobago’s Under 20 footballers will have a final training session on Tuesday prior to their opening match in the Concacaf Final round of qualification against Cuba in Guatemala City on Wednesday.
The team settled in at the Futuro Hotel in Guatemala City after arriving from Honduras where they played two warm-up matches against the Honduras national under 20 team.
Head coach Zoran Vranes would have gotten a chance to see his first opponents Cuba on Monday as they opened the tournament against Mexico while Canada faced Guadeloupe. T&T faces the Cubans on Wednesday at 8pm.
Team captain Sheldon Bateau said on Monday that the members of the team were feeling some level of anxiety as the opening game approaches but said there was still a fair amount of calmness in the camp.
“We’re anxious because we are here in Guatemala now and all the weeks of preparations are now down to this. Our first game is on Wednesday and we are anxious to take the field and get an opening victory,” Bateau told TTFF Media.
“We are focused at the moment. We lost our two games in Honduras but we know what are the areas we need to pay special attention to and we know what our strengths are,” he added.
“Individually all the players are in good shape. We are in good form and just trying to stay focused on free of injury.”
Bateau was also a member of the T&T Under 20 team which participated at the 2009 FIFAU Under 20 World Cup in Egypt and he believes the team is a more experienced one this time around.
“This time around we have more experience in the team so that should be a plus and we also have a high level of fitness. We plan to use that as one of main strengths.
We need to play for 90 minutes and more in every game.. Wherever we may fall short technical wise we intend to use our physical strengths to our advantage, “ Bateau added.
United States faces Suriname and Jamaica tackles Guatemala on Tuesday. The top four teams from the tournament will advance to the FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Colombia starting July 29.