Soca Warriors interim coach Hutson “Barber” Charles has requested the services of Ipswich Town captain Carlos Edwards for this country’s second round Group Eight Caribbean Football Union Cup qualifiers at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago from November 14-18.
Charles yesterday confirmed the 34-year-old Edwards, who has been capped 82 times and last played for T&T in the Soca Warriors 2-0 win over Guyana last November in the second round of Concacaf World Cup 2014 qualification, was one of the overseas players being sought for the four-team qualifiers in Tobago which will also involve St Vincent and The Grenadines, Cuba and Suriname.
Ipswich is currently bottom of the English Championship Division table with seven points from 13 matches and only on Thursday hired former Ireland coach Mick McCarthy to replace Paul Jewell and it is left to be seen if the new boss will allow the T&T international to leave for the three matches, with his club under pressure and the matches not falling on Fifa international dates, apart from the November 14 encounter.
The interim national coach, a former national midfielder himself shared that he has also requested the services of Keon Daniel (Philadelphia Union/MLS), Carlyle Mitchell (Vancouver Whitecaps/MLS), Robert Primus (Aktobe/Kazakhstan) all of whom have completed their league seasons as well as Orlando City’s Kevin Molino and Vietnam-based duo Willis Plaza (NaviBank Sai Gon/Vietnam) and Hughtun Hector (Song Lam Nghe An/Vietnam) who are already in the country already having completed their seasons as well.
Mitchell’s season came to an end on Thursday night after his Vancouver Whitecaps went under to LA Galaxy 2-1 after taking a third minute lead through Jamaican Darren Muttocks. Soca Warriors squad featuring Daniel, Plaza, Hector, Micthell and Primus topped their first round Group Five series involving French Guiana, St Kitts/Nevis and Anguilla with maximum nine points at Warner Park Stadium, Basseterre, St Kitts/Nevis to qualify for the second phase
The Jan-Michael Williams skippered-Soca Warriors whipped French Guiana (4-1), edged the host country 1-0 and clobbered Anguilla 10-0 with a team mixed with youth and experience.
At Bacolet, T&T, record eight-time Caribbean champions will open its bid for a spot in the eight-team finals against St. Vincent & the Grenadines on November 14 followed by matches against Suriname on November 16 and seeded team, Cuba, two days later after which the top two teams from the group will advance to the finals carded for Antigua & Barbuda in December.
Another possible call-up for Charles, was defender Julius James of Columbus Crew but he is now sidelined for the next four to six months following surgery to correct reoccurring dislocations of the shoulder that worsened as the year progressed.
Two other T&T players attached to the Crew English-born World Cup veteran Christopher Birchall and Tobago-born defender, and Kevan George are not being considered by Charles.