Under-20s start football mission

ANTON COR-NEAL, coach of the Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 football squad, has stressed that the team is well prepared for the CONCACAF Final Round Qualifica-tion Group “A,” which begins today at the Home Depot Centre, Carson, California. Trinidad and Tobago face hosts United States today; play Costa Rica on Friday and tackle Panama on Sunday, with the top two finishers advancing to the 2005 FIFA World Youth Champion-ships in the Netherlands from June 10 to July 2. Referring to the team’s confidence, Corneal stated: “We (the technical staff) saw a major change in the second match against Venezuela (on November 7 at Ato Boldon Stadium).”

“I thought that’s when the team took a different path, a pathway of realising ‘if we work hard, we’re able to play with those teams’,” Corneal added. “And it showed up against Cuba (in a two-match second round tie).” As far as the team’s chemistry is concerned, the Strike Squad midfielder noted: “With a couple of new players coming into the team, (who) were with us in the summer, has actually strengthened the team.” Corneal continued: “The inclusion of (Kareem) Smith into the team, Abiola Sandy coming back (as well as) Makan Hislop, Kevin Crooks and the ability to practise as a team together for three weeks (during) the Christmas vacation, (has) brought us together, gave us a bit more unity off the field and it showed up on the field, players playing for each other. Despite the failure of the team to practise against foreign opposition, the lads took on the challenges of a number of local outfits, including the senior team last Thursday.

“We scored a lot of goals against some of our opponents,” he said. “I thought that was very useful, at least we are scoring goals.” But he is guarding against any sort of complacency during this week’s qualifiers. “We know what we’re going (into), it’s going to be a tough situation,” he admitted. “It’s not an easy group, we have to put all the distractions (behind us). All we have to see is results and that’s what we’re aiming at right now.”

Also expressing his confidence about the team is captain Radanfah Abu Bakr, who stated: “Obviously we’re the underdogs but we’re looking forward to the challenge. “We prepared well, as best as we could, and hopefully, we’ll be successful,” added the QRC and Arima/Morvant Fire defender.” Commenting on their opponents, Abu Bakr conceeded that the squad doesn’t have first-hand knowledge of any of them. “But, hopefully, the team can adapt as quickly as possible,” he said. “At the end of the day, its 11 versus 11 so, the (better) we can adjust to that and play well.”

Teams —
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (from): Thorne Holder, Andre Charles (goalkeepers); Kareem Smith, Radanfah Abu Bakr, Marcelle Francois, Karlon Murray, Makan Hislop, Akile Edwards (defenders); Devon Maxwell, Kendall Jagdeosingh, Kezi Lara, Hayden Tinto, Atullah Guerra, Keon Daniel (midfielders); Shane Calderon, Christopher Sam, Abiola Sandy, Kevin Crooks (strikers).
UNITED STATES (from): Quentin Westberg, Andrew Kartunen (goalkeepers); Jon Freeman, Marvell Wynne, Patrick Phelan, Greg Dalby, Tim Ward (defenders); Patrick Ianni, Sacha Kljestan, Benny Fielhaber, Arturo Alvarez, Edward Gaven, Danny Szetela (midfielders); Chad Barrett, Freddy Adu, Will John, Jacob Peterson, Charlie Davies (strikers).