Soca Warriors coach, Angus Eve says his 23-man roster selection for the CONCACAF Gold Cup preliminary round clash against Guadeloupe on Friday at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale from 4.30 pm has been made more difficult after his team’s 1-0 win over Guatemala in their friendly on Sunday night.
Utility player Alvin Jones of Tiger Tanks Club Sando, one of the nine locally based players in the starting squad scored from the penalty spot in 53rd minute to secure the win for the Soca Warriors at the Subaru Park in Chester, Pennsylvania,
The goal was only the second in 42 appearances for the 28-year-old Jones, with his other, a thunder-strike that earned T&T a 2-1 win over the USA at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva back in 2017 which ended the Americans Russia 2018 World Cup dreams.
Speaking after the match which extended T&T’s unbeaten run to six matches, Eve said, “I thought it was a solid performance and Marvin (Phillip) really didn’t have any real problems to get any shots on his goal.”
The 51-year-old Eve added, “I thought our guys were very resolute. We played a particular way in the first half to take the crowd out of the game, and then we introduced the youngsters in the second half, and you saw what they brought.
“They brought energy, they brought guile, and they brought a little bit more bravery going forward. They were a bit braver than the senior players and I thought it worked really well.
With regards to his team’s approach in the first half, Eve, T&T most capped players with 117 appearances to his named explained, “We played what we have been working on for the last week with the guys, and then foreign guys who came in we just worked with it for the two days.
“But we played three at the back, two wing backs, and two holding midfielders and three up top.
“ I thought the first-half the guys were a little bit timid except for Muckette (Duane) who was coming for the ball, Corbin was good, and he was showing for the ball.”
“But, in the second half I think the guys were a lot braver and we started to get on the ball and play in the pockets and get the wing backs Ross Russell and Alvin Jones going, and that’s the real threat in the formation.
Concerning the late pressure his team had to absorb from the Guatemalans, Eve replied, “Well, our people think crowd don’t matter, but when the crowd started to gee up their team, you started to see their guys run a little bit more, and I thought that were very resolute at that point in time.
Players made his Gold Cup selection very difficult
“They (Guatemala) still didn’t get any real opportunities on our goal, so credit to our guys, they made my job very difficult with the performance which they put out tonight, because we now have to select a 23-man squad from the guys here, and the guys that we have who wasn’t here, and it's just part of the project going forward, and step by step we want to re-establish ourselves in the Caribbean and as I said, in Concacaf and this is another step in that direction.
Eve also praised the effort of the home-based players on the night saying, “Garcia (Justin) and Trimmingham (Josiah) were monsters at the back with Sheldon Bateau and the two wing backs (Russell Jr and Jones) who are playing their football at home were really good and I think it was a good team performance and it augurs well for the local league.
“Once these guys start to build-up and get the match fitness that they have to get, then we can come here and put them in a formation to allow them to perform and allow to play in a way that suits the style of players that we have.
“You know, its a process and we keep going forward as we still have a lot of guys on the outside who are competing for positions with these guys here also, but with the opportunity they got tonight, think everybody took it with both hands.
The T&T coach said he is expected to name his 23-man roster from the 60-man preliminary roster submitted to CONCACAF by tomorrow (Wednesday, June 14), but already one player (Luke Singh) seems to be out due to an injury he picked up on Friday.
“We will review the guys who played tonight (Sunday) as we saw what they did, and we have been watching the other guys and our systems and monitoring them, and a lot of the guys played yesterday (Saturday), and one of the guys got injured on Friday in his game, but at the end of day we will try to pick the best team that we can possibly pick in our opinion for T&T,” stated Eve.
The winner of Friday’s meeting between T&T and Guadeloupe will face the winner of the Guyana and Grenada clash for a spot in the Group D of the main draw alongside top-seeded Canada, ranked 47th in the world, 116th-ranked Guatemala and Cuba, ranked 165th.
The preliminary round one fixtures between Martinique and St Lucia and Curacao and St Kitts and Nevis will also take place on June 16 at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale from 7 pm and 9 pm, respectively.
A day later (June 17), at the same venue, the three remaining first-round preliminary matches will come off with French Guiana against Saint Maarten from 4.30 pm followed by Suriname versus Puerto Rico at 7 pm and two hours later, Guyana up against Grenada.
In the second round of the preliminaries, the winner of the Martinique/St Lucia match and the winner of the Suriname/Puerto Rico clash will square off for a place in Group C alongside the Central American trio of Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador while the third and final preliminary round pairings see Curacao and St Kitts and Nevis winners meeting French Guiana and Sint Maarten winner for a place in Group A where the USA, Jamaica, and Nicaragua await. Group B of the main draw will feature Mexico, Haiti, Honduras, Asian Champions, and guest nation, Qata.