Soca Warriors lose Scott Sealy

TRINIDAD and Tobago footballers will have to do without the services of former United States-based college striker Scott Sealy in Sunday’s Digicel Caribbean Cup third round encounter against St Vincent and the Grenadines. Sealy will be off to Baltimore tomorrow to take part in the 2005 Adidas MLS Combine. Because of his outstanding performances for Wake Forest University, Sealy was called among 66 players for screening sessions which will be witnessed by top MLS coaches with the view of offering of contracts. The sessions are scheduled for January 8-11. Coach Bertille St Clair meanwhile will have a look at the available players in today’s training match against the national Under-20 team at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium from 4.30 pm.

Under-20 coach Anton Corneal will announce his squad today for next week’s CONCACAF qualifying series in California, USA. Also Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation have been forced to change the venue for Sunday’s match from the Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain to the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella. The match will now be played at the southern venue from 3.30 pm on Sunday as the unsuitable weather conditions has forced the unavailability of The Oval. Following Sunday’s match, the senior team will depart for Antigua on Monday for a one-week training camp at the Antigua Recreation Ground before going to St Vincent for the return leg of the Digicel Caribbean Cup.

The team will then return home to prepare for friendly internationals against the Azerbaijan national team at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on January 21 and then at Manny  Ramjohn Stadium on January 23. Azerbaijan, who regained their independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, have played four matches in the 2006 World Cup qualifying tournament so far. They gave a solid performance in a 1-0 loss to England with Michael Owen scoring a 22nd minute winner, before losing 2-0 to Austria. They then recovered to hold Wales 1-1 and Northern Island 0-0. Among their more famous results include a 1-0 win over Switzerland during the 1998 qualifiers. Their current coach is captain of the 1970 Brazilian World Cup winning side Carlos Alberto Torres. They next face Poland in another World Cup qualifier in March.