TTFF News - Under 20 team picked to start "Course to Canada"

Under 20 team picked to begin “Course to Canada”

Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, October 21, 2006

 

National Under 20 team head coach Brian Williams finalized his  20-man squad to go into action in the Caribbean Football Union second round of the qualification towards the 2007 FIFA World Youth Cup from Wednesday against Dominican Republic at the Ato Boldon Stadium.

 

Williams’ team will go into a live in camp from Monday with two latest additions joining the team after arriving on Friday night. They are defender Radanfah Abu Bakr, based in College in London and Stefan Delas, a former Birmingham City trainee out of the Stern John Skills Award program, now attending Graceland University in the USA.

 

The Under 20s had a training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Saturday morning, playing a scrimmage among themselves after CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh failed to show for a training match.

 

Coach Williams expressed a fair amount of satisfaction with his final squad.

 

“After our final session this morning before going into camp, we had a good talk with the boys, explaining our expectations and trying to instill into them the approach needed for the phase of the game they will be heading into,” Williams told TTFF Media. “They seem comfortable on the whole approach and the next couple days we will work some more on fine tuning the squad for the games. Today we had both Wim Rijsbergen and Lincoln Phillips at the session and they too were part of the talks with the players who are understanding more and more what it is to play at this level apart from doing it with the College team or club. International football is always something you have to see differently whether it be in the early stages of competition or the real Finals which we are trying to get to,” Williams added.

 

The former national defender did hint though that he will continue to look at available talent once T&T progresses to the final CONCACAF round in January.

 

“It means we have basically two months after this round to look at the other players in other parts like the United States. We will look at anyone who has the T&T passport and can fit into our program and add something to the team’s cause.”

 

Some of the players in the current squad with past national youth team experience include midfielder Khaleem Hyland, Marvin James, midfielder Keon Daniel, Atulla Guerra, Brendon Boucaud, Javed Mohammed while Aaron Downing also worked with the Under 17s and is expected to be one of the main attacking threats with the likes of skipper Matthew Bartholomew and Lester Peltier

 

Bartholomew seemed confident in his team’s ability.

 

“We are still working on meshing as a team but basically we want to destroy and we think we can do that. That’s how we are thinking at the moment. There’s always more work to do and we will work towards getting the team to the best shape,” the W Connection striker added.

 

T&T will face Dominican Republic, which knocked Cuba out on a 1-0 win, on Wednesday at the Ato Boldon Stadium with St Vincent/Grenadines and St Kitts/Nevis meeting in the first game of the double header. T&T then faces  St Kitts/Nevis two days later and then St Vincent on October 29.

 

 

With two groups among eight teams being contested in the CFU, the top three Caribbean nations will then progress to the CONCACAF final round. Group A of that  CONCACAF Final Round will be held at the Estadio Rommel Fernández in Ciudad de Panamá from January 17-21, while Mexico will stage Group B which runs from February 21-25  in Culiacán, Sinaloa. Four CONCACAF teams will progress to the 2007 FIFA World Youth Championship in Canada.

 

 

T&T Final 20-man squad

Goalkeepers -Adrian Foncette (Fatima College), Kareem Gray (St Benedict’s College)

Defenders - (Fyzabad Composite), Devon Drayton (W Connection), Corneal Thomas (Superstar Rangers), Radanfah Abu Bakr (Caledonia AIA), Marvin James (unattached), Brendon Boucaud (St Anthony’s College),

Midfielders -  Elton John (San Juan Jabloteh), Khaleem Hyland (Mucurapo SC), Hans Pierre (Maple FC), Keon Daniel (Utd Petrotrin), Atulla Guerra (unattached), Dion Peters (Joe Public), Javed Mohammed (Naparima College), Christon Thomas (Superstar Rangers)

Forwards, Aaron Downing (W Connection), Matthew Barthlomew (W Connection), Lester Peltier (San Juan Jabloteh), Carlon Hughes (Mayaro United), Stefan DeLas (Graceland University).