An­drew Gioan­net­ti

T&T's beach soc­cer stars will fi­nal­ly get its first taste of com­pet­i­tive ac­tion to­day when it kicks off its Fi­fa Beach Soc­cer World Cup qual­i­fy­ing cam­paign with a for­mi­da­ble test against Mex­i­co at the Mal­colm Park Beach Soc­cer and Fut­sal Fa­cil­i­ty, in Nas­sau, The Ba­hamas, from 5 pm this evening.

The beach So­ca War­riors, coached by four-time World Cup win­ner Brazil­ian Alexan­dre Soares, were sched­uled to be­gin its quest for one of two avail­able spots for the Fi­fa Beach Soc­cer World Cup against Cana­da in Group B yes­ter­day, but the sud­den with­draw­al of Guyana, an­oth­er Group B chal­lenger, forced sev­er­al mod­i­fi­ca­tions to the tour­na­ment sched­ule.

In­stead, T&T will take on Cana­da to­mor­row, at 10.45 am.

Guyana's with­draw­al meant Group B was cut down to three teams, sim­i­lar to Group C. As a re­sult, the two groups will be treat­ed as the same. Af­ter all three teams in each group play the oth­er, the sec­ond-placed fin­ish­er will play the third-placed fin­ish­er in the same group.

For ex­am­ple, Group B's sec­ond-placed fin­ish­er will play the third-placed fin­ish­er as to al­low all teams an equal chance in the fight to be the best sec­ond-placed fin­ish­er of the three groups. The best sec­ond-placed team will ad­vance to the semi­fi­nal along with the win­ners of each of the three groups.

Last evening, Mex­i­co, the de­fend­ing cham­pi­on of the Con­ca­caf Beach Soc­cer Cham­pi­onship, played Cana­da. Match­es in Group A and C al­so com­menced yes­ter­day.

T&T TEAM

Zane Cok­er, Vic­tor Thomas, Ryan Au­gus­tine (capt), Makan His­lop, Eli­jah Roberts, Shal­lun Bobb, Jesse Bai­ley, Rod­ney Nel­son, Chad Ap­poo, Ha­keem King, Lemuel Lyons, Do­minic Mc­Dougall.

Coach: Alexan­dre Soares

Asst coach: Ben­van As­tor­ga

Physio: Ja­son Pil­grim

Man­ag­er: Yuri Chap­man

SCHED­ULE

To­day

Cos­ta Ri­ca vs Ja­maica, 12 pm

Unit­ed States vs Puer­to Ri­co, 1.15 pm

Ba­hamas vs Guatemala, 3.45 pm

Mex­i­co vs T&T, 5 pm

Fri­day

Cana­da vs T&T, 10.45 am

El Sal­vador vs Cos­ta Ri­ca, 12 pm

Guatemala vs Puer­to Ri­co, 1.15 pm

Ba­hamas vs Unit­ed States, 2.30 pm

Sec­ond Group B vs Third Group B, 3.45 pm

Sec­ond Group C vs Third Group C, 5 pm

Sat­ur­day

Ninth place vs 10th place, 1.15 pm

Sev­enth place vs eighth place, 2.30 pm

Semi­fi­nal one, 3.45 pm

Semi­fi­nal two, 5 pm

Sun­day

Fifth place play-off, 2.30 pm

Third place play-off, 3.45 pm

Fi­nal, 5 pm