Warriors have five days to make history

The regional team, aiming to reach the World Cup in Germany next year for the first time in their history, will play Panama on October 8 in Panama City before returning home to face the mighty Mexicans in their final match four days later.

Due to the short space of time between the two fixtures, TT are expected to prepare for both matches in Panama and are due there on October 3.

"The coach (Leo Beenhakker) said that rather than do part preparation here (Trinidad) and part over there, we will do all the preparation in Panama," team manager Bruce Aanensen said.

"We will probably also carry over 20 players, so that if there is an injury we don’t want to have to send for a player to fly all the way to Panama."

After a 2-0 loss to Costa Rica in their last match, Trinidad and Tobago now require full points in these games in order to ensure themselves of a place at the next World Cup.

More importantly, they need to beat Panama in their next match and hope that Guatemala, their nearest rivals, lose or draw their two remaining fixtures.

The Warriors beat Panama 2-0 in their first leg meeting back in June and will be confident of pulling off another win, despite having to play before a partisan Panamanian crowd this time around.

What should work in TT’s favour however is the fact that Guatemala, one point ahead of them in the standings on eight points, face Mexico in that series of matches.

Should Guatemala lose and TT pull off a win, the regional team will move to ten points, two ahead of the Central Americans.

In the final series of matches, TT will have to hope that Guatemala lose or draw with Costa Rica in order for them to secure the final qualifying spot.

Beenhakker is expected to name the TT squad next week.