T&T gets first round bye

T&T gets first round bye for South Africa W/Cup qualifiers
Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, August 25, 2007
Trinidad and Tobago was among 13 nations that will receive a first-round bye in CONCACAF qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South AfricaFIFA, in a statement on Friday said it based the decision on its rankings from May. The US also has a bye with Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Guatemala, Canada, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines also received first-round byes.Twenty-two nations will be slotted into home-and-home pairings during the World Cup qualifying draw on November 25 in Durban, South Africa. The 11 winners and St. Vincent will drawn against the top 12 seeds in the second round, which likely will be in June. The 12 second-round winners advance to the semifinals, which will retain the same format from 2006 qualifying, with three groups of four.The top two teams in each semifinal group advance to the six-nation regional finals. The top three teams in the finals qualify for the 32-nation field, and the No. 4 team meets the fifth-place team from South American in a home-and-home playoff for another berth.
T&T also had a first round bye for the 2006 qualifiers and subsequently went on to book its first spot in a World Cup by defeating Bahrain in a playoff. T&T then performed creditably, as the smallest nation at the Finals, holding Sweden 0-0 before losing to England and Paraguay.
T&T head coach Wim Rijsbergen is currently in South Korea with the National Under 17 team at the FIFA Under 17 World Championship and will return home next week to resume preparations with the Senior Team.
“Its nice that we get a bye for the first part as it gives u an opportunity to look at some new players. We have some names on the list to scout like in the MLS. We will probably invite them for some games this year. WE had a tournament in Uzbekistan cancelled but we have short notice for two more games coming up. We have to see these players,” Rijsbergen told TTFF Media on Saturday.
“We have to sit down after the World Cup draw in November to really plan the team’s schedule. I am thinking that at the end of the Pro League that we should have the players together in December and January training and looking ahead to some friendlies.”
“I still have to look towards a solution with the black listed players but we have to also form a national team in the meantime without them. We started this in the Gold Cup and we will keep on having another list ready for matches. Then there is a possibility that we can have some other players not on the black list.”
Rijsbergen said he was also aware of the name Khaleem Hyland, now being eyed by Celtic and was also a part of the preliminary squad for the Gold Cup.
“We have seen this player because he played in the U20s in Jamaica. But at the moment Mike McComie made a decision that if you don’t turn up for training for the Olympic team then we don’t select you and it’s the same situation with Mr Peltier and Guerra. The story has two sides to it. But yes we know these players. Then we have other young players with a future like Jason Marcano. The only club giving us problem is Jabloteh because the other clubs are cooperating. And we hope this can be solved for the future. We are not trying to ruing careers or clubs but it has to work both sides. We have no favourites and we want to give everyone a fair chance. We took a team of all locals to the Gold Cup and when they are good we try to invite them and use them,” Rijsbergen added.