T&T's Soca Warriors played to a goalless draw with Haiti in a practice match at their training base in Boca Raton, Florida, USA, on Tuesday (June 20).
It is their final 11-a-side exercise before the team gets ready for its first match of the Concacaf Gold Cup on Sunday (June 25) in Fort Lauderdale. They will face the winner of the, St Kitts and Nevis and French Guiana match, which was scheduled to be played last night at 9 pm at the DRV PNK Stadium.
National coach Angus Eve said he was satisfied with the match against the Haitians, one of Concacaf's rising teams which was among the early qualifiers for the tournament, along with Canada, Costa Rica, and Honduras.
"This Haitian team is very well coached, you can see they are very well organised. They have players playing in the top leagues all over the world, but I think the exercise was an even one. A draw was a good result because we had some good chances also, but all in all, it was a good exercise."
Eve, whose 23-man team for the tournament, features a blend of experienced and young players, sees the return of midfielder Kevin Molino who had been out for a long time due to injury. The players all had the opportunity to bid for starting roles on Sunday as Eve said it's a policy in his practice matches for everyone to play.
To facilitate this, his team played in two groups.
Eve said he will now channel his focus on set pieces.
"We came out of this match without any major injuries. Daniel Phillips got a dead leg, but we should be able to solve that problem come game time. Right now, we're going to be concentrating on our freekicks, our corners, and how we defend against freekicks and corners, especially as we will know the opponent we will play in the first match by tonight.
"We know all the other teams in the group, so we want to go out there and put our best foot forward in the group and continue to represent our country as we have been doing," Eve said.
After Sunday's opening match, the second T&T game will be against their regional rival Jamaica on June 28, before they complete the group phase against the might of the USA on July 2 at the Bank of America Stadium.
Eve and his men will be hoping to improve their last performance in the Gold Cup, where they drew with Mexico 0-0 and Guatemala 1-1 before losing to El Salvador 2-0 in the group phase in 2019.
The Soca Warriors will play St Kitts/Nevis in their opening Group A match of the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup tournament on Sunday at the DRV PNK Stadium in Ft Lauderdale, US, at 3.30 pm. T&T will play Jamaica on June 28 at 7.30 pm followed by US on July 2 at 7 pm.