Williams to join team in California

Williams will join up with the team on Wednesday in California and will train with the team prior to Friday's opening match against Mexico.

The ex-W Connection player was a member of the T&T Under 20 Team at the 2009 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Egypt and has been in the squad in the previous Olympic qualifying matches and also has senior team experience.

Head coach Angus Eve has only one player left to join the team in Orlando City midfielder Kevin Molino. The final 20-man squad will be announced by Eve on Tuesday which means that six players from the current camp will return to Port of Spain from Fort Lauderdale.

Meantime, defender Leslie Russell who scored in T&T's 2-1 loss to Fort Lauderdale Strikers last week, says the team chemistry is getting to where it should be for the tournament.

“At this point we are getting it right. The win on Sunday was important and the overall camp has been really a plus for us. Right now we are just focusing on the tournament,” Russell told TTFF Media.

“The entire squad is in good shape. We have no injuries to worry about and mentally we are preparing ourselves. We know it’s going to be three tough games but we can handle these teams.

We played Mexico already and even though they will obviously come hard at us, we know what to expect and hopefully we can put our final pieces together and push on for a good result on Friday.”

Eve also added that he was impressed by the team’s work rate and the effort of the players so far.

“They need to be commended for the effort. We have had players out there working hard on an ongoing basis. I’m pretty happy with the attitude of all of the guys including the new players coming into the squad like Kevan George and Cordell Cato. It’s a matter of getting the final bunch mentally ready for the task ahead now,” Eve said.

Bruce Aanensen of All Sport Promotions, will travel to California today (Monday) to make sure all prior arrangements are in place for the team’s arrival there on Wednesday.