TT footballers on way to Egypt

Technical director Lincoln Phillips and head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago senior football team Bertille St Clair will leave today with nine locally-based players for London, England. They will meet nine UK-based professionals and overnight there before departing for Cairo on Monday ahead of Wednesday’s friendly international against Egypt. Also travelling with the team will be TTFF general secretary Richard Groden while  special adviser and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner will meet the contingent  in Cairo.

The TT-based pros on the team are Angus Eve, Cornell Glenn, Kerry Baptiste and Daurance Williams, all of CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh; W Connection’s Kerwyn Jemmot and Stokely Mason, Defence Force’s Anton Pierre, Joe Public’s Derek King and  Arima Morvant Fire’s Conrod Smith. “We have included some young players in the squad to give them  experience and to see how they perform on a bigger stage. We have a lot of talented players but they need exposure in order to develop. The team has to keep playing regularly at this level because the more we play the better we will get,”  said St Clair who held a  training session at the Marvin Lee Stadium yesterday. Egypt are currently ranked 35th on the FIFA world rankings with TT in 69th spot.  Meantime, Egypt also finalised their squad earlier this week, recalling striker Hossam Hossan who is the most capped player in Africa.

He earned his first call-up since the 2002 Nations Cup following a series of impressive performances for his Zamalek club which is currently top of the Egyptian League. The veteran player made his international debut against Norway in Oslo in September 1985 and has played 150 times since.  Egypt caretaker Fathy Mabrouk has said he will be hoping to see what his local talent pool has to offer as they prepare for World Cup qualification. The Egyptian FA confirmed  on Thursday that their new coach is Italy’s 1982 World Cup winner Marco Tardelli. He will take charge of the team on April 1 but will view the match versus TT. In addition to his monthly US $40,000 monthly salary, Tardelli  has been guaranteed a US $100,000 bonus should he lead the “Pharaohs” to their first World Cup finals in 16 years.

T&T Squad:
Goalkeepers: Shaka Hislop (Portsmouth), Daurance Williams (Jabloteh)
Defence : Derek King (Joe Public), Marvin Andrews (Livingston), Dennis Lawrence (Wrexham), Anthony Rougier (Brentford), Brent Sancho (Dundee), Anton Pierre (Defence Force)
Midfield: Brent Rahim (Falkirk), Stokely Mason (W Connection), Kerry Baptiste (Jabloteh), Angus Eve (Jabloteh), Kerwyn Jemmot (W Connection), Carlos Edwards (Wrexham)
Forward: Stern John (Birmingham City), Cornell Glenn (Jabloteh), Hector Sam (Wrexham) Conrod Smith (Caledonia AIA)
Egypt squad: Goalkeepers: Essam El Hadary (Al Ahly), Abdelwahed ElSayed (Zamalek)
Defence: Tarek El Sayed (Zamalek), Ahmed El Sayed, Wael Gomaa, Ahmed Abo-Mosallem (all Al Ahly), Osama Hassan (ENPPI), Ahmed Fathy and Moatasem Salem (both Ismaily)
Midfield: Tamer Abdel Hamid, Tarek El Saeed (both Zamalek), Hassan Mustafa, Mohamed Shawky, Mohamed Abou-Treika (all Al Ahly), Hosni Abd-Rabo, Mohamed Abdallah (both Ismaily)
Forwards: Amr Zaki (ENPPI), Hossam Hassan, Abdel-Halim Ali (both Zamalek), Osama Hosny Shaun Fuentes.