Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Men’s team will hope for a winning start to their 2012 Caribbean Cup challenge when they face off with French Guyana in their opening game of Group 5 at Warner Park, Basseterre, St Kitts from 6pm on Wednesday.
The match will be the first of a double header with the hosts taking on Anguilla in the second outing at 8pm.
For skipper Jan Michael Williams and his teammates, it would be an opening whistle they have long anticipated in wake of the run of events for the past two weeks leading up to the tournament.
At a media conference hosted by the St Kitts Football Association involving officials of all four participating teams, the subject of T&T’s financial woes provided some comical relief and head coach Hutson Charles was left with little option but to smile it off, preferring to let his team’s on-field antics have the final say.
“We’re here to get a job done. Of course there has been much happening but like I have been telling my players, there are people there to take care of that and we have to take care of things on the field of play,” Charles told the gathering.
French Guiana head coach Steve Falgarette said his team was ready to pose a stiff challenge to T&T in their opening match. Their build up included a 3-1 win over Suriname, a 2-1 loss to Haiti as well as a 2-0 win and a 2-1 loss to Guyana back in June.
“We are here to learn but we also want to win our games. This is our first time in this tournament and we want to take everything from the experience,” Falgarette said. French Guiana is a member of CONCACAF and CFU, and thus eligible for all competitions organized by both.
However, the country, as an overseas department of the French Republic, is a not a member of FIFA. A special rule of the Gold Cup only allows players to join their team if they have not played for France during the past five years.
T&T trained on Tuesday morning after the squad was only assembled in full after midnight on Monday following a delay in a connecting flight from Antigua.
The LIAT flight heading to St Kitts encountered a problem in air which forced the pilot to make an emergency landing back at the DV Bird International Airport in Antigua. It took another three hours before another LIAT plane eventually took the awaiting passengers to Basseterre.
Officials of the host St Kitts association meantime promised to rectify early glitches relating to the provision of meals for the T&T team (which have arrived long after initial schedules as the Ocean Terrace Inn does not have an operating restaurant on location).
It is customary that the host association is responsible for accommodation, meals and ground transportation for all visiting teams.
The same will apply to T&T when it hosts the next phase in November.
Aside from that, veteran midfielder Densill Theobald expects his troops to put their best effort on the field of play.
“A victory is very important for us to start the tournament. We know everything that has been taking place and as such three points is a key at this point. The spirit in the camp is still pretty good.
The boys have done well in training and the experienced bunch like myself, Keon Daniel, the captain Jan Michael Williams and Clyde Leon have been here before and we know what is required.
The new have guys like Hughtun Hector and Devorn Jorsling who have done well in the Caribbean Cup before so it’s a matter of us putting things into perspective and taking care of these three teams,” Theobald added.
St Kitts have included Vancouver Whitecaps forward Atiba Harris and West Bromwich Albion midfielder Romaine Sawyers in their squad for the tournament.
NB The three visiting teams are being accommodated at the Ocean Terrace Inn.
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