An­drew Gioan­net­ti

With the re­turn of sev­er­al on form Eu­ro­pean-based play­ers, some of whom have not fea­tured for the coun­try since the short-lived World Cup 2014 qual­i­fy­ing cam­paign, T&T's So­ca War­riors will be ex­pect­ed to take a pos­i­tive re­sult when it faces Pe­ru in an in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly, at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, from 8 pm tonight.

Just un­der six months have passed since T&T's se­nior play­ers last saw ac­tion in a friend­ly, that in a 2-0 loss to Cana­da, in Fort Laud­erdale, USA.To­day's match will be used by its man­age­ment team, co-head coach­es Ja­maal Shabazz and Hut­son Charles and as­sis­tant coach An­gus Eve, in prepa­ra­tion for June's Con­ca­caf Gold Cup, which T&T qual­i­fied for via a run­ner-up fin­ish at the CFU Caribbean Cup last year.

Pe­ru, which is hun­gry for a win ahead of its cru­cial re­main­ing World Cup South Amer­i­ca qual­i­fiers, has in its ros­ter a host of tal­ent­ed play­ers, in­clud­ing a for­mi­da­ble pair in Ger­man-based Clau­dio Pizarro (cap­tain) and Jef­fer­son Far­fan, as well as Corinthi­ans' Pao­lo Guer­rero.

On the op­po­site end for T&T, for­mer cap­tain and Stoke City strik­er Ken­wyne Jones will lead the for­wards, with the aid of some of the coun­try's high­est-rat­ed play­ers, in­clud­ing mid­field­er Khaleem Hy­land, who has been ex­cep­tion­al for his Bel­gian club Rac­ing Genk be­fore be­ing sum­moned.

Hy­land last wore T&T colours against Guyana dur­ing World Cup qual­i­fi­ca­tion in 2011. If fea­tured tonight, as ex­pect­ed, full­back/mid­field­er Car­los Ed­wards will make his 79th ap­pear­ance for T&T. Den­sill Theobald, one of the most ex­pe­ri­enced play­ers in the squad, will cap­tain and com­mand the team from the mid­field, along­side Cale­do­nia AIA's Ataullah Guer­ra.

Na­tion­al co-head coach Ja­maal Shabazz, speak­ing at a me­dia con­fer­ence ahead of the match yes­ter­day, said he was ex­cit­ed to face a South Amer­i­can op­po­nent be­fore a se­ries of must-win match­es for ei­ther team.

"We are us­ing this op­por­tu­ni­ty to take a first hand look at the play­ers in Eu­rope, who (oth­er­wise) have not been in­volved in the na­tion­al team," said Shabazz.

And, since their re­turn, the for­eign-based con­tin­gent have had an im­me­di­ate and pos­i­tive im­pact on the squad ac­cord­ing to the coach.He said in the past play­ers have re­turned to T&T and have been un­co-op­er­a­tive with coach­es. How­ev­er, in this in­stance the play­ers have been co-op­er­a­tive. "It is a good feel­ing to have with the staff."

From the last 10 fix­tures, T&T has won five, lost two and drawn three, all of which have been at last year's CFU Caribbean Cup, which T&T fin­ished run­ner-up to Cu­ba. Pe­ru has two wins and two draws from its last nine match­es.

T&T last met Pe­ru in an in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly pri­or to its de­but at the World Cup in 2006. The match, staged at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, end­ed in a 1-1 draw, with T&T's Jones on tar­get from a free kick.

Squads

T&T

Goal­keep­ers: Mar­vin Phillip, Cleon John.

De­fend­ers: Car­lyle Mitchell, Daneil Cyrus, Aubrey David, Cur­tis Gon­za­les, Ka­reem Moses, Shel­don Bateau.

Mid­field­ers: Car­los Ed­wards, Den­sill Theobald, Khaleem Hy­land, Kevon Carter, Ataullah Guer­ra, Key­on Ed­wards, Jemel Se­bro.

For­wards: Dar­ryl Roberts, Ken­wyne Jones, De­vorn Jorsling.

Pe­ru

Goal­keep­ers: Ra�l Fern�ndez, Diego Pen­ny.

De­fend­ers: Al­ber­to Ro­driguez, Car­los Zam­bra­no, Ren­zo Revore­do, Rober­to Guiza­so­la, Chris­t­ian Ramos, Au­re­lio Saco Ver­tiz.

Mid­field­ers: An­dr� Car­ril­lo, Ri­nal­do Cruza­do, Luis Ramirez, Juan Car­los Mari�o, Juan Manuel Var­gas, Ed­win Re­ta­moso, Car­los Lo­bat�n, Al­fre­do Ro­jas.

For­wards: Clau­dio Pizarro, Pao­lo Guer­rero, Jef­fer­son Farf�n, Ju­nior Ross.