Edwards: TT hurt, hope to bounce back

Head Coach Tom Saintfiet used Thursday as a recovery day for his players following their shocking 2-1 defeat to Suriname but was back on the training field the following morning (yesterday) ahead of their clash with the Haitians.

Haiti ended TT ’s Copa America Centenario ambitions with a late 1-0 win in the playoff in Panama City in January last year and both teams have been drawn together again in another playoff as they try to qualify for the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

TT captain Carlos Edwards reflected on the loss yesterday, saying the local players are hurt but are picking themselves up for Sunday’s challenge.

“Obvious the boys did hurt because of the loss. I personally didn’t like the result because I felt there was no reason for us to be losing these kind of games at home especially with it being a qualifier for the Gold Cup,” Edwards told TT FA Media.

“But now we’ve returned to the training pitch and the feeling of wanting to go out and do better is back in our minds and we know we have a task to complete on Sunday. I believe in the squad even though we have some very young players who have not really found themselves as yet on the international level but the squad has the quality, I believe, to make us get results,” Edwards added.

“We have to play our best game yet under the new coach if we want to advance out of this stage.

Every player must bring their best game to the Ato Boldon stadium on Sunday and then we can take things from the next day looking ahead to the final playoff and the qualifiers coming up in March,” the former Sunderland player said.

Haiti and Suriname met at 7pm at the Ato Boldon Stadium last night. A Suriname win gives TT no chance of qualification while a victory for Haiti would see TT needing to beat the Haitians by a bigger margin on Sunday.