Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men’s team will depart Port of Spain for Fort-de-France, Martinique at 1pm on Sunday, heading there for Tuesday’s Scotiabank Caribbean Cup qualifying match against the hosts in their second match of Group 4 Third round action at the Stade Pierre-Aliker.
Head Coach Stephen Hart conducted a final training session on home soil, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Saturday evening, later describing the mood in the camp as an upbeat one with the squad fully aware of what is required come Tuesday.
“Yes everyone is in good spirits. We’ve had a couple of very good , intense training sessions since the match on Wednesday and of course this period is important to us as a squad because over the time we are together it gives us that opportunity to grow closer as a unit and of course we get to work on certain things on the training field before our upcoming matches. You have to remember that this period is not just about the matches against Martinique and Dominican Republic in focus, but mores for our matches next month against Costa Rica and Honduras,” Hart told TTFA Media.
Costa Rica will play Russia in a friendly international in Krasnodar on Sunday while Honduras take on Belize today (Saturday). Hart and his staff will be monitoring both matches along with Martinique’s qualifier with Dominican Republic today (Saturday).
“Both Costa Rica and Honduras are playing this weekend and we will keep our eyes on that as well we will follow the Martinique versus Dominican Republic match,” he added.
Commenting on the Martinique team, Hart stated “They are very nice team. They have about six or seven players with very good quality. They will be at home and will try to put us under pressure and keep the tempo very high. We have to be focused and ready to manage the game properly,” Hart added.
Hart touched a bit on the 4-0 win over Dominican Republic, saying “I think the team has a tendency to play to the so called level of the opposition which is never a good quality because then when you get to games when you need to raise the level, then it becomes harder for you. So it is always good to see us break out of that habit and dominate the opposition.”
He commented also on the contribution of Kenwyne Jones.
“I don’t think they (onlookers) understand it. You have to look at how he occupies the defence. Any other player or coach would have been congratulated for that sort of performance where he contributed to three of the goals and then defensively he also did some very good work, he pressed, he chased back and he cleared balls on corners. There are times when strikers go into spells where they don’t always score for their countries but then if he is contributing to someone else who scores… then who cares,” Hart added.
Dutch-based winger Levi Garcia who left the game on Wednesday with a thigh injury, has recovered and has trained fully since then. He will travel to Fort-de-France with the rest of the squad.