St Clair calls 29 for first training session

Trinidad and Tobago football coach Bertille St Clair has called a squad of 29 locally based players to prepare for upcoming friendly internationals.

These matches are in preparation for the 2006 World Cup qualifiers which kicks off in June. Among the players recalled are midfield maestro Arnold Dwarika, former Columbus Crew defender Ansil Elcock, North East Stars striker Jerren Nixon, Kerwyn Jemmot and Angus Eve. The latter has decided to come out of retirement following St Clair’s invitation. Some of the promising young players called are Starworld Strikers goalkeeper Marvin Phillips, midfielder Kester Cornwall, Defence Force striker Kevin Carter and Cornell Glenn of CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh. But other Under-23 players were not considered for the first set of sessions due to their duties at the final Olympic qualifiers which start next week in Mexico.

 St Clair who is currently in England to hold meetings with some TT overseas-based professionals as well as officials from the English FA, will conduct his first session at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Centre of Excellence on February 4. His first assignment will be a pair of friendlies against Bermuda’s senior team at the National Sports Centre on February 10 and 12. The team will return home that same week to face a Brazil All Star team at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Tuesday, February 17. The match has been brought forward by a day in order to facilitate TT’s overseas pros who will need to return to their clubs the day after as the FIFA calendar runs from February 12 to 18. “We have kept a close eye at the players here in the recent past and these are all players that we think have the capability to be part of the journey. It is a mixture of experience and youth and this should provide us with a solid base to be complimented by the players from abroad,” said St Clair.

“And the door is not closed to other players as we intend to have further looks at other potential national players.” Eve, an experienced national player who retired from the international game in 2002, said that the return of St Clair was a factor in his decision to return to the national set up. “I always go out there to give one hundred percent for a national team and any player who has aspirations always likes to be given a fair chance, but at that point in time I took the decision to end my national team career. It came because a lot of things were not going right within the football fraternity,” Eve said.

Players called for training:
JABLOTEH —- Keyeno Thomas, Angus Eve, Trent Noel, Nigel Pierre, Aurtis Seaton, Cyd Gray, Cornell Glenn, Travis Mulraine, Ansil Elcock, Kerry Noray                                     
W CONNECTION —-  Stokely Mason, Atiba Charles, Kerwyn Jemmott, Arnold Dwarika          JOE PUBLIC —- Derek King, Kevin Graham, Jamaal Hamid, Garvin Mc Kenna
DEFENCE FORCE —- Anton Pierre, Kevin Carter
FIRE SERVICES —- Ashton Leggerton
SWIF—- Larry McDonald                                                       
STARWORLD STRIKERS—- Marvin Phillips, Kester Cornwall                   
NORTH EAST STARS - Jerron Nixon, Anthony Wolfe
POLICE —- Neri Joseph
CALEDONIA —— Denzil Theobald, Conrad Smith