Under-16s seek CFU glory

The TT-Aruba contest will kick off at 5 pm, two hours after Grenada and Guyana clash in the tournament’s opener.

For the second successive year, the national team will be led by goalkeeper Jesse Fullerton, with Chad De Freitas, Stephen Knox and Daniel Cyrus expected to carry the brunt of the goal-scoring charge.

Sean De Silva, Leston Paul, Mark Rivers, Ryan O’Neil, Stephen Chang, Jean Luc Rochford, Brenton Balbosa, Sheldon Bateau and Robert Primus are also returning from the 2005 squad, who finished fourth in the inaugural event held here in TT. Anton Corneal will coach the team this year, replacing Ken Elie who who has gone on to manage WASA FC in the TSTT Super League.

But the technical team of Hutson Charles (assistant coach), Ross Russell (goalkeeping coach) and Christopher Gouveia (manager) remains the same for the TT lads.

In all, 28 countries, including five guest teams (Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama) will participate in the event, which runs from August 14 to 26.

There will be seven groups of four teams in this week’s first round stage, with the winners and the best second-placed finisher advancing to the quarter-finals on August 22.

The semi-finals will take place two days later with the third-placed match and final scheduled for August 26.

All teams will feature players under the age of 16, while the tournament also serves as the Caribbean Preliminary Qualification to the CONCACAF Under-17 Final Round competition in 2007.