Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men’s team was scheduled to arrive in Fort-de-France at around 7pm on Sunday for Tuesday’s Scotiabank Caribbean Cup qualifying match against hosts Martinique in its closing Third Round Group 4 encounter.
The team departed Port of Spain shortly after midday for Castries, St Lucia en route to Martinique but encountered a delay in landing in St Lucia by some fifteen minutes due to a thunderstorm over the vicinity of the George FL Charles airport.
T&T, skippered by Kenwyne Jones, will need to win Tuesday’s encounter in order to seal automatic passage through to the Caribbean Cup semi-finals and the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup. CFU rules for the competition state that each match must have a winner which means that should Tuesday’s match end in a draw after 90 minutes, there will be extra time and penalty kicks if needed. Martinique defeated Dominican Republic 2-1 in their clash on Saturday in Santo Domingo to also move to three points alongside T&T.
T&T head coach Stephen Hart commented on the current scenario, saying: “It’s a situation where we must win the game on Tuesday. This is the ruling of the competition and to be honest it does not affect our mindset because we go out there to win every match. The players understand this. Martinique will be on a high having won in the Dominican Republic and they will also try to make the game very difficult for us. They will be at home and looking to seize that advantage. They are very hungry to get to the Gold Cup as well.
“The next day or so will allow us to settle in and get a feel of the conditions and then of course we will approach the match in a similar manner to any game which is to try to dictate the pace of the game and come away with the result that we need,” Hart told TTFA Media.
Orlando City midfielder Kevin Molino, fresh from his hattrick last Wednesday in the 4-0 win over Dominican Republic, is remaining confident but is expecting a much tougher assignment on Tuesday.
“Yea, of course we remain confident as a team in our ability to get the job done,” Molino said. “But I have played against Martinique on a couple occasions in the Caribbean Cup and so too have a lot of the boys and I expect they will be up for the game in a big way. They have won their first game also and will be thinking that they have everything in their favour to advance to the Gold Cup,” Molino added.
The T&T team will be based at the Karibea Resort while in Martinique.
The Martinique team includes a few European-based players including Scottish-based Kilmarnock midfielder Julien Faubert, Bulgarian-based midfielder Mathias Courier, France-based midfielder Bruno Grougi and Swedish-based forward Yoann Arquin. Martinique-based forward Kevin Parsemain is also in the side for Tuesday’s match.
Meantime, fans are reminded that they can purchase their season passes at the following First Citizens Bank branches – Independence Square, One Woodbrook Place, Arima, Tunapuna, Chaguanas, Point Fortin, San Fernando, Gulf View, and Scarborough.
The price of the Passes is as follows: Covered Stands $2,000; Uncovered Stands, $1,000.
These passes allow football fans entry to the following: the five home matches in the final round of World Cup Qualifying for Russia 2018; international friendlies and all other official national team matches for Men and Women as well as the national youth teams. The Passes remain valid until November 2017. For further information, please call the TTFA Hotline: 270-6868.