THE T&T men’s senior football team will be selected by coach Terry Fenwick on Wednesday.
A burst of youthful talent is favoured to dominate the 23-man unit as they gear up for their first international match, in over 13 months, against the USA on January 31, at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, Florida.
The team complete their two-day quarantine at the Home of Football in Couva, on Wednesday, and depart en route to Orlando on Thursday. They will fly to Guyana and then to Miami. From there, the squad have an over two-hour coach ride to their hotel in Orlando.
“We’re brand new. We’re young. I’ve got two or three players in the squad that give me a little bit of experience and that are older. My starting XI will be quite young. But they’ve been working hard,” Fenwick said before Tuesday’s training session at Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
The former English player sees the clash against USA as an important warm-up ahead of the squad’s opening World Cup qualifying match against Guyana on March 25. This game will be T&T’s first since Fenwick replaced Dennis Lawrence as men’s team coach in January 2020.
During his stay in the US, the national coach will link up with several foreign-based T&T players. Although he hasn’t seen them on the training ground, he will use this trip to have some one-on-one time with these players in an effort to find out what qualities they bring to the team.
“I have got a lot of belief and confidence in the young players that we’ve had in the last year. I am a big believer in what you put in is you get out and we’ve worked hard and we’re structured and well organised and we’re better than anything else on the island here and my priority is Guyana on March 26,” he added.
Fenwick sees the USA clash as a “big call” and it serves as his first match at the helm of T&T football. He quelled naysayers who describe his choice of opposition as “too tough” and said this was the chance that young players needed.
Throughout the pandemic and the now buried legal wrangling between FIFA and the TT Football Association during 2020, Fenwick scouted internationally for potentially younger prospects.
Fenwick communicated with over 325 T&T players over the past year and he believes the youth are key to T&T’s return to the competitive circuit.
“Guys that we have training with us on the ground now are the best of the bunch. They’ve done a terrific job. Fitness levels are very good and it’s a much younger squad than T&T have had for quite a while,” he said. The 61-year-old coach hails the US team as probably “the biggest brand in Concacaf football” and was unimpressed with the likes of returning to the competitive stage against lowly Anguilla.
All the players he will select have come through the national youth system and represented at various tournaments. According to him, T&T needs to look at world football, observe its evolution and place more emphasis on the younger bracket of footballers.
He again lamented that football has resumed, under strict covid19 guidelines, in several countries throughout the world, while T&T is yet to make a return. Fenwick pleaded for leniency for domestic football.
“We are still without TT Pro League and Super League football. There’s no football on the ground, not even schools football. It’s been horrible for the last 18 months but the rest of the world has been playing football, and indeed in the rest of the region local leagues are competing, and we’re not doing that in T&T,” he said.
He has, however, recognised 12 UK-based T&T players who cannot yet travel. It is his intent to get them to T&T in time for the World Cup qualifiers to create a fusion of much-needed top quality players.
When the squad returns from the US, Fenwick is hoping to have a three-team tournament including two of the teams from the Caribbean region to play on local soil.
“We have to get on our feet again and find our way again. We’re hoping we can come back full of confidence. We know it might be difficult for us but we’ve got to stick together as a team on and off the field of play. We’ve got a wonderful passion and commitment and team spirit going on already and I want us all fighting together for the right reason,” he said.
While he is pleased with the support received so far, Fenwick hit out against those against the national team’s progression.
“We’ve trained all year and the only side that didn’t participate was La Horquetta Rangers that will not allow their players to play with the national team. That is the politicking that we’ve got going on in the background that people out there should know,” he closed.
RELATED NEWS
Fenwick hoping for something positive from USA friendly.
By Roger Seepersad (T&T Express).
JUST WHAT WE NEED
Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men’s football team head coach Terry Fenwick described the upcoming friendly against CONCACAF giants USA as just the starting point for himself and his players, hoping such exposure can get them accustomed to handling the big occasion, ahead of the World Cup qualifiers in March.
Fenwick has been at the helm of the national team for just over a year now and, on Sunday, he and the Soca Warriors will have their first taste of action when they take on the USA in Orlando, Florida. The game will be T&T’s first game with Fenwick as head coach and it will also mark the senior men’s team’s first outing in more than a year.
Fenwick took over the reins from Dennis Lawrence in 2019 but there was no football for the senior men’s team in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which is still a concern even with a return of sporting activities in 2021. T&T’s previous international fixture was against Honduras in the CONCACAF Nations League, in Sandro Pedro, in November 2019, which they lost 4-0.
The Soca Warriors will start their World Cup qualifying campaign in March against Guyana and Fenwick indicated that is the focus even as they gear up to face the USA this weekend.
“I have got a lot of belief and confidence in the young players that we’ve had in the last year. I am a big believer in what you put in is what you get out and we’ve worked hard, and we’re structured and well organised and we’re better than anything else on the island here and my priority is Guyana on the 26th of March,” Fenwick told the media ahead of a training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva, yesterday.
“The USA is a big call. It’s a big starting position. It’s a big first game for me and for many of my players but we need to progress the game and we need to get our guys comfortable with the big occasion and it doesn’t get any bigger than this,” he added.
Fenwick is backing his players to make the most out of the opportunity, stating: “Some will say that we’re thrown these kids under the bus but what an experience it is for them to play their first game against the USA. We knew this was going to be a very big call and this was made thinking let’s get going with something that’s a huge brand.”
He continued: “It’s probably the biggest brand in CONCACAF football. I want our players to be taken seriously, so we’ve side-stepped the likes of Anguilla. I think they have been an embarrassment in the past. We recognise this is not going to be easy. The players we’re playing against are all structured and organised and have been in the national U-17 and U-20 sides and now they’re in the senior team.
“Many of the players who are the top-ranking players in the USA are under 23 and you guys have got to recognise that some of the main players for the USA today are playing for some of the biggest club sides in the world, so these guys have got to be taken seriously,” he pointed out.
Asked of his expectations for the match, Fenwick said he wants to see “something positive”, but noted that, “we’re playing against a top brand, top team... They’ve got excellent players. They’ve got quality in every position. We know we’re up against it but at some stage T&T have got to get back on the map. We’ve got to be playing against the best in the region and that is my intention. It is a big ask,” he conceded,
“We’ve been working hard behind the scenes to be organised, structured and have discipline about how we play and how we’re going out to upset them. My starting XI will be quite young…so it’s not going to be easy against the USA, but it is a starting position that I thought will get, not just my players and my staff technically up and running, but behind the scenes, more than everything, we need this game to smell the coffee and get the ball rolling again in T&T and I thought this would be the catalyst to do that.”
The T&T contingent was scheduled to be tested for Covid-19 yesterday before heading into a two-day quarantine at the Home of Football in Couva. They will continue training at the venue before leaving for the USA tomorrow. On arrival, the team will be tested every day during their stay in the US and will train twice a day in Orlando before Sunday’s game. The T&T team return home on February 1 and upon arrival will undergo seven days quarantine at the Home of Football.