St Anthony’s star in TT Under-23 team

Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-23 footballers are scheduled to depart for Georgetown, Guyana tomorrow for a two-match friendly series. Both countries are preparing for second round 2004 Olympic qualifying matches next month and will be keen to get some much needed match practice following their first round victories some weeks ago. TT coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier is preparing his team for their tie with Grenada which will be played in St George’s on November 15 and then at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on November 19. The latter date falls within vacant dates in the English calendar and also marks 14 years since TT missed out on qualifying for the 1990 World Cup finals in Italy by a point. Charles-Fevrier will also be working with the TT senior team for a match against Cuba’s senior team on November 19 from 7 pm as part of a double header.

The Olympic qualifier will kick off at 5 pm. Guyana are scheduled to meet Costa Rica in their next qualifying leg on November 15 and 23.
Charles-Fevrier’s entire team is made up of local-based professionals with Silvio Spann leading the team. Secondary Schools league “Big 5” winning goalscorer Julius James of St Anthony’s College is also in the team along with  national senior team members Nigel Daniel, Devon Mitchell and Jan Michael Williams. The St Lucia-born coach has one blow to his team as he will be going to Guyana without the services of Defence Force striker Kevon Carter. “Obviously we welcome the matches against Guyana because it gives us the chance to better our preparations. We will be using the two matches more or less to fine tune our game and also use the opportunity to try out one or two different ideas. We are always trying out different ways of playing in an attempt to get it right,” said Charles-Fevrier. St Lucia and Panama kicked off second round action on the weekend with the latter scoring a 6-1 victory. The remaining second round encounters will be on November 15 and 16 (first-leg) and conclude on November 19 and 23 (second-leg). The seven remaining teams after the conclusion of the second round will join hosts Mexico in the final round of CONCACAF qualification from February 2 to 12 for only two berths to the Olympic Games in Athens, Greece.