The North, Central America and Caribbean Zone (CONCACAF) will contest play-off matches in June 2011 in order to reduce the number of teams included in the Preliminary Draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil in Rio de Janeiro on July 30 2011.
And from these playoffs, Trinidad and Tobago’s first opponent will be determined, resulting from the subsequent Preliminary Draw.
The region’s ten lowest ranked teams according to March’s FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking were paired against each other to produce a series of five play-off matches which will be played on a two-legged, home and away basis.
Montserrat-Belize
Anguilla-Dominican Republic
US Virgin Islands-British Virgin Islands
Aruba-St. Lucia
Bahamas-Turks and Caicos Islands
The winners of these fixtures will join the remaining 25 higher-ranked teams from the region in the Preliminary Draw. The first leg will be played on Friday 3 June, with the return leg scheduled for Tuesday 7 June.
The teams taking part in this extra preliminary round of fixtures were determined according to their rank in the region on the March FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. T&T are currently ranked 94th on the world rankings and tenth in Concacaf, one spot behind El Salvador and one above Haiti.
T&T head coach Otto Pfister returns to Port of Spain later this month from his trip to the UK and will conduct his first training session on May 2 at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
“The head coach returns from his overseas trip shortly and will commence his training with the selected home-based players.
We are in the process of identifying foreign-born players who are eligible to represent Trinidad and Tobago to join the already existing pool of local and foreign-based players.
At the same time we will also play a friendly international on the June 2 FIFA international window and this match will be announced in due course once all arrangements have been confirmed,” TTFF technical adviser Keith Look Loy told TTFF Media on Tuesday.