In shivering cold conditions, Dwight Yorke and his Trinidad and Tobago teammates regrouped for the first time since celebrating their 1-0 win over Bahrain in November as they got down to preparations for Tuesday’s friendly international against Iceland at Loftus Road.
With 18 out of the twenty players reporting to camp by 1pm on Sunday with the exception of Fulham goalie Anthony Warner and midfielder Aurtis Whitley who arrives on Monday evening, head coach Leo Beenhakker put his players through their paces for one hour at the Queen’s Park Rangers training ground in Harlington. The conditions were nippy enough to leave fingers burning but Yorke and company fought it off well as they ran out in full Adidas gear for the adverse weather. The temperature read minus 15 degrees earlier on but had gone up to just around three degrees by the time the session commenced at 4pm and it was compounded by a strong wind coming across the venue.
Sky Sports and other well known English and Swedish media companies came out in their numbers to follow the “Soca Warriors” in their first session since it was announced that they would be facing England, Sweden and Paraguay at June’s World Cup.
Beenhakker left the session opened for filming and photos but politely asked that the cameras stay a fair distance away from the touchline. But for the reporters, it was far from a big ask as they preferred to focus on the T&T team as the Iceland team trained on one of the nearby pitches.
“This is still great. I don’t think we would ever have this sort of access to the England team,” one reporter said. “It’s great because it gives you a chance to build a really nice picture of the team and the fans will love this.” Beenhakker though would surely have been thinking that he would be doing no favours on such a stage.
Captain Yorke couldn’t have been a prouder individual as he stood up and spoke to the UK Press for the first time as a player who is heading to the World Cup.
“This is a really exciting time for Trinidad and Tobago football,” Yorke told TTFF Media. “And certainly for the players here they are all really looking forward to this game on Tuesday. I didn’t realize how much I missed England,” he laughed. “Yea but this weather is a bit cold especially when I’m coming from Australia where it’s 30 degrees and then you have the lads coming over from the Sun back home. But we will be able to adjust as quickly as possible.
When asked by reporters about T&T’s matchup with England, the ex-Manchester United star replied “There’s still a big smile on my face and for many reasons too because I have lived and played here for many years and I have made a lot of friends in the national team of England and we are all looking forward to it.”
With his season coming to a near close at Sydney FC, Yorke also hinted that he could be heading back to England to play before the World Cup.
“It’s a possibility and we are looking at all the options. My people are working on it and we are in talks at this time trying to make something happen. I know how important it is to continue to play because you don’t want to go into the World Cup short on form,” Yorke said. Possibly at the Premiership level he was asked and a quick response came: “You never know. I still feel that I can cut it with it the Premiership boys. I’m really excited about it and this game on Tuesday is a historical one for us because it’s our first game as a World Cup team. Of course playing in front of the fans since November is definitely a nice meeting point.
“First of all it’s important because we were not together since the last game against Bahrain. Everybody is looking for the ideal 23 players for the World Cup and I have some questions for players who I have not seen up until this time and on Tuesday they can give me the answers. In that way it’s a good preparation match and the main part for me is being together again,” Beenhakker told reporters after his training session. The Dutch-born coach will conduct another session at the training ground from 10am and a final one at Loftus Road at 7pm on Monday.