CFU Youth Cup in August

The CFU, under the presidency of Jack Warner, will stage 50 matches over seven venues across Trinidad and Tobago with the final being played on August 26 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

The winner will advance to the CONCACAF Final round of qualification towards to the FIFA Under-17 World Championship 2007 in South Korea.

There will also be four guest teams including Mexico, Canada, Guatemala and Panama as they look ahead to South Africa 2010.

The theme for this year’s tournament is “To catch a star for 2010” and Warner has reiterated the need to spot budding talent and have it properly nurtured for future events with obvious emphasis being placed on the next World Cup.

TT have been grouped with British Virgin Islands, Dominican Republic and Aruba for the opening phase. The hosts will kick off versus Aruba at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on August 14 at 6 pm.

Technical Director Lincoln Phillips and youth development officer Anton Corneal will continue to scout local talent and a squad of players have been in training over the past months preparing for the upcoming tournament.

The training has been overseen by coach Ken Elie.

“The country and I mean moreso the young talent is on a high right now following our exploits at the World Cup and we need to capture this with everything we have as we look to the development of our players and teams.

“Every young kid wants to be the next Soca Warrior star because they have witnessed what our team has been able to achieve on the world stage and if we can transform that enthusiasm onto the pitch then surely we could have benefited in more ways than one,” Phillips said.

Soca Warriors captain Dwight Yorke also spoke of proper development recently, recalling his time as a youth player as well.

“These are obviously important things that we need to look at and it starts with encouraging the young ones,” Yorke said.