TT footballers leave for Nicaragua today

Tom Saintfiet spoke about the preparations ahead of his first international assignment since taking up the position of coach earlier this month.

“I am very satisfied. It’s a big opportunity for me as a new coach, not having much time to see a lot of league matches, to train the boys and you can teach them your tactics and I have seen a lot of improvement.

We started about six days ago and the boys are very committed and working very hard to improve,” Saintfiet said.

“We need to get the spirit back. It will be a very difficult task in Nicaragua because they are also a good team and they are preparing for the Copa Centroamericana,” he added.

Commenting on the training schedule during the holiday period and being away from home from Christmas day until New Year’s Eve, Saintfiet stated, “I think the players coped very well with that.

They are very professional minded.

They know this is important for the country. We are not here for ourselves. We are in the first place to defend Trinidad and Tobago, to qualify for the Gold Cup and in the later stage for the World Cup.

“We are here on a mission and even if you have duty, there are people working all over the world who will not be with their families.

We are professional football players.

We know this is very important for the country.

“After the training (yesterday), the players are released. They go to their families and can enjoy the time with their families for more than 24 hours and (today) in the late afternoon we will fly to Nicaragua, I think everyone will still have a little bit of Christmas feeling but the focus on football will not be far away,” Saintfied said.

Saintfied also made it clear that the final selection of players for the Nicaragua matches was his decision.

“I don’t like to be in the media every day. I think it’s not needed to always have discussions on what people think about the national team…we know what we are doing,” he said.

“It is very clear that when I arrived here I had only a short period of time so I consulted with people with my knowledge of how I want to play. They were informed what type of players I was looking for and I watched a lot of games. The final selection that will go to Nicaragua is 100 percent my choice.

“I decided which players I wanted to select and I was very clear when I met the players that from Tuesday we go into camp and players who decide to go and play for their club, they will not be selected for the national team (for the training camp and matches vs Nicaragua). So in that way, it was not my choice who was not in the camp because they decided not to be in camp but the full selection is naturally very clear – my choice in consultation with my technical team but the final decision is the coach’s.” Two players will not be making the trip to Nicaragua - goalkeeper Marvin Phillip, who is nursing a shoulder injury, and defender Triston Hodge, who was left out for disciplinary reasons, according to media officer Shaun Fuentes.

TTFA vice president Ewing Davis will travel with the contingent as chef de mission and technical director Muhammad Isa will also accompany the team for the two matches.