The Trinidad and Tobago Under-21 squad preparing for the CAC Qualifying matches at month-end has been cut to 23 players, who will continue training and playing matches up until March 26.
The national U-21s, coached by Ron La Forest, will face the Joe Public first team in a warm-up match at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on Thursday, following which the final 18-man squad will be named for games against Dominica on March 31 and Haiti on April 4 in Trinidad.
The squad includes England-based midfielder Ricky Shakes, who made a second half appearance in T&T's 2-0 win over Iceland last month.
Another debutant in the Iceland clash, Kevon Neaves, out of the University of South Florida, is also in the 23-man squad.
The T&T boys are coming off a recent training tour to Tampa, USA, during which the team drew 1-1 with the United States National Under-17 team, as well as suffered narrow losses to MLS teams Chicago Fire and Kansas City Wizards.
Since returning home, the team also went under 2-0 to Petrotrin last Saturday and they will play further matches against W Connection on March 23 at Ato Boldon Stadium from 4 p.m.; CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh on March 25 from 10 a.m.; and against Defence Force a day later at a venue to be announced.
Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation technical director Lincoln Phillips has spoken highly of the team's technical staff for carrying out their duties in the preparations so far and also credited the work of motivational speaker Franklin Dolly with the team in recent weeks.
Phillips also made special mention of the T&TFF for extended services and the Sports Company (SPORTT), as well as the T&T Pro League and the Super League for cooperation in the arrangement of training matches among other things.
"A lot of work has gone into the team both on and off the field in the past weeks. We have been fortunate to have had a lot of games in the build-up to the tournament and this can only augur well for us. It gave us a fair chance to work with the team and we can only hope to execute well in the competitive outings to come," Phillips told T&TFF media officer Shaun Fuentes yesterday.
T&T are hoping to be one of the Caribbean representatives at the CAC Games in Colombia in July.
And following the 2-0 international friendly victory over Iceland and with most of the team members returning to their respective clubs abroad, assistant coach Anton Corneal will conduct two training sessions at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. today at the Ato Boldon Stadium with a group of locally-based pros, including Brent Rahim, Kerry Baptiste, Atiba Charles, Jan Michael Williams, Cyd Gray, Aurtis Whitley, Anthony Wolfe, Glenton Wolfe, Errol McFarlane and Nigel Henry.
T&T Under-21 squad:
Goalkeepers:
Hasely Holder (Joe Public), Shean Warner (Tobago United).
Defenders:
Adrian Foncette (Fatima College), Carlon Murray (San Juan Jabloteh), Akilie Edwards (Defence Force), Kester Alexander (Joe Public), Marcelle Francois (US Based), Ancil Farrier (Southern Connecticut Universtiy), Dion Peters (Joe Public), Makan Hislop (University of South Carolina), Yohance Marshall (University of South Florida).
Midfielders:
Hayden Tinto (Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA Fire), Josimar Belgrave (Superstar Rangers), Kezi Lara (Princes Town SC), Kevon Neaves (University of South Florida), Clevon George (Young Harris College), Ricky Shakes (Swindon Town), Jason Devenish (University of South Florida).
Forwards:
Abiola Sandy (Bowling Green University), Randi Patterson (University of Greensboro), Kendall Jagdeosingh (Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA Fire), Shane Calderon (W Connection), Kareem Freitas (St Anthony's College).