Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 23 Men’s team will come up against Grenada’s National Under 23s in a friendly encounter at the National Stadium in Grenada on Saturday from 7pm.
The game will serve as a warm up for both teams who are preparing for the upcoming Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Puerto Rico.
T&T are automatic qualifiers having finished among the top three teams in the Under 20 qualification phase from the Caribbean previously while Grenada will contest the qualifiers.
The Under 23s, under head coach Zoran Vranes went down 2-1 to San Juan Jabloteh’s Pro League team in a training match at the outside pitch of the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Tuesday evening with Caledonia AIA’s Jean Luc Rochford being the lone scorer for T&T in the second half after Jabloteh had gone 2-0 up soon after the half time interval.
The T&T team will include some regular faces such as defenders Robert Primus and Sheldon Bateau who have been in training with the T&T Senior Team as well as young left sided player Joevin Jones who has also been in the Senior Team mix.
Jones is the son of former Strike Squad player Kelvin Jones. Some of the others in the list include Jamal Gay, Daneil Cyrus, Jean Luc Rochford, Andre Marchan, Aubrey David and Marvin Manswell who has recovered from an injury prior to the Under 20 World Cup.
Vranes says he expects nothing but a win on Saturday but is hoping to see how the current team puts together in an international outing.
“Of course we are two teams trying to prepare for international competition so it’s going to be a physical and maybe even a difficult game but we will not go there and take it as an easy game because it’s Grenada,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
“We have to prepare for the long term which is the CAC Games, the Pan American and of course the Olympics so every game is important for us. There are some new faces in the team now, different from what we carried to the Under 20 World Cup and so this is a good chance for us to see how they fit together on the playing field.”
Vranes said he was also pleased to see the progress being made by Turkey-based forward Juma Clarence who is now the third member of the team based in Europe alongside Khaleem Hyland and Jake Thomson. Skipper Leston Paul and Uriah Bentick are also based in the US Colleges League and will also miss Saturday’s match.
“Well it’s good to see Juma out there and that makes it five or more of our players who are based overseas and not available to us at the moment which means it is a chance for another player to come into the team.
Then there is the possibility that a player like Daneil Cyrus can go outside soon so we have to keep looking after players and ensuring we have a good pool to select from when the games are there to be played,” Vranes added.
Players list for Grenada:
1. Andre Marchan (Joe Public), 2. Glenroy Samuel (Joe Public), 3. Jevon Morris (St Anns Rangers), 4. Robert Primus (San Juan Jabloteh), 5. Daneil Cyrus (Caledonia AIA), 6. Nicholas Walker (St Ann's Rangers), 7. Joevin Jones (W Connection), 8. Sheldon Bateau (San Juan Jabloteh), 9. Jean Luc Rochford (Caledonia AIA), 10. Sean De Silva (College of Charleston), 11. Jamal Gay (Free Agent), 12. Trent Lougheed (Joe Public), 13. David Aubrey (W Connection), 14. Marcus Joseph (Joe Public), 15. Trevin Caesar (Ma Pau), 16. Jason Joseph (San Juan Jabloteh), 17. Curtis Gonzales (Ma Pau), 18. Mikeil Williams (Ma Pau).