Trinidad and Tobago head coach Stephen Hart says he had already began mapping out plans for this country’s opening fixture in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign even before Tuesday’s round of qualifying matches.
T&T will face Guatemala on November 13th in Guatemala City after the Central Americans held off Antigua/Barbuda 2-0 in their home leg match on Tuesday night. That result overturned a 1-0 result in favour of Antigua from the first leg. The other team confirming their spot in T&T’s semi-final round group is St Vincent/Grenadines which held off a tricky Aruba outfit.
T&T's second game will be at home to United States on November 17th.
“To be very honest I always thought that is how the group was going to be,” Hart told TTFA Media on Wednesday.
“I always thought we would end up playing Guatemala and this is just a confirmation of how I felt all along.”
Guatemala have always been difficult opponents at home and Hart says he will not judge this assignment based on the 3-1 win for T&T at the Gold Cup when the “Soca Warriors” blew past them in the opening half with three quick fire goals.
“They have always been very difficult opponents at home and I didn’t expect Antigua to go there and steal points. It will be the same for us. This game will be totally different from the one we played in the Gold Cup,” Hart added. T&T's two previous World Cup qualifiers away to Guatemala saw the "Soca Warriors" going down 5-1 in the 2006 campaign and then stealing a valuable point in a 0-0 draw in 2008 during the semi-final round of the 2010 World Cup qualification. Hart knows all too well that the upcoming matches will be crucial.
“The opening game two games are extremely tricky as we have to travel to Guatemala and then travel to play USA at home (Port of Spain) which takes away one day of preparation. But we’ll deal with it. I think right now everyone is very aware of what it will take and our first priority is starting well and securing our place in the final round of qualification and then we take it from there,” Hart added.
The top two teams from each group will progress to the Final Round of six or the Hexagonal or Hex stage which will be played from November 7th 2016 to October 10th, 2017.
The top three teams will automatically qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the fourth place team will enter an intercontinental playoff with the fifth placed team from Asia.