Trinidad and Tobago head coach Bertille St Clair will take up an alternative plan for the upcoming week after the Venezuela Football Association was forced to cancel an international friendly with this countrys Senior Team due to the unavailability of their seasoned professional players.
An invitation had been extended to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation to take part in the game which was being staged to raise funds for those affected by floods in Venezuela and was scheduled to be staged in Merida on Venezuela 9. But Serafin Boutureira Riveiro of the Venezuela FA explained on Thursday that they were unable to field a suitable enough team as their players overseas clubs are unwilling to release the requested players for the affair.
Likewise, T&T faced a similar problem. For though the date does not fall within the FIFA international calendar but several of the overseas players no longer involved in the FA Cup scheduled for that period, St Clair was hoping to secure the services of some of his overseas pros. But this too did not materialise for when contacted the clubs responded negatively. Portsmouth goalkeeper Shaka Hislop was the only player likely to show as Japan-based midfielder Silvio Spann was also refused leave by Yokohama FC.
Because of this, it has been agreed that St Clair will now journey to England to meet with the quota of T&Ts pros based there as well as the Managers of the respected clubs so as to interact with them all and to discuss with their respective Managers the journey that lies ahead .St Clair will also be meeting with Special Technical Consultant, Graham Taylor, to review the USA match as well as to discuss a regimen of training and coaching for the upcoming matches.. During that period, Assistant Coach Ron La Forest will conduct training in Trinidad with the home-based pros.
It is unfortunate that the game has had to be called off because of the fact that both countries would be unable to field respectable teams. Both countries are preparing for upcoming World Cup qualifying matches and would have used this game as a rehearsal hence the reason for wanting their best players.
With the game now off, we have decided that St Clair will now spend a week in the UK where he will meet with our players as well as technical consultant Graham Taylor, TTFF President Oliver Camps stated . This outing seems the next best option and we certainly will not allow the week coming to go to waste.
A friendly against Honduras is still on the cards for March 22 leading up to the World Cup qualifier away to Guatemala on March 26.