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Thu, Nov

John, Enil, Muckette drafted into squad.
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The trio of US-based players Ricardo John, Aaron Enil and Dwane Muckette were drafted into the T&T men’s football team for the Pan American Games which takes place in Toronto, Canada later this month.

This was confirmed by team manager David Muhammed who stated that the trio who were all part of the Olympic (Under-23) team which ended second to St Vincent and the Grenadines in their three-team Caribbean Football Union Group qualifiers for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games will replace Central FC striker Dwight Quintero, goalkeeper Montell Joseph, and senior team call-up Kadeem Corbin, who left yesterday as part of the senior Soca Warriors squad for the 2015 Concacaf Gold Cup which begins in the USA on July 7.

At the Pan American Games, T&T will face Uruguay (July 13), Paraguay (July 17) and Mexico (July 21) in pool play.

Looking ahead to the tournament, T&T coach, Serbian-born Zoran Vranes who was at the helm of the T&T Olympic team which ended its qualifying campaign with a 5-0 thrashing of host Puerto Rico after a 3-5 loss to St Vincent and the Grenadines said he was pleased that his side bounced back.

“I am happy to see the boys come back and play this way. It has been a long few weeks for them, you know, preparing for the tournament and then coming here to get knocked out after one loss,” Vranes said.

“But I know their capabilities and they were able to put the loss behind them and focus on this game. I think the early start helped us and we never looked back.

“Now we have a few days to prepare for the Pan American Games. The players are anxious because they all would like to play against these quality teams. They want to do well for the country and I think this will be a great opportunity for them to go there and do something good and get the experience for the future.”

Team

Aaron Enil, Shannon Gomez, Maurice Ford, Alvin Jones, Jesus Perez, Neveal Hackshaw, Jomal Williams, Tristan Hodge, Nathaniel Garcia, Dwane Muckette, Shackeil Henry, Xavier Rajpaul, Ricardo John, Jelani Felix, Neil Benjamin Jr, Dario Holmes, Aikim Andrews, Jovan Sample.