It will be a win at all costs for the T&T se­nior na­tion­al foot­ball team when they face Bermu­da to­mor­row in a must-win Group B match of the fi­nal round of the World Cup Qual­i­fiers at the Na­tion­al Sports Cen­tre, Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, North Shore Vil­lage, Bermu­da, at 7 pm.

Speedy at­tack­er Levi Gar­cia made it clear, “We just need to win. We need to be ful­ly fo­cused. We know the im­por­tance of the game; it is a must-win game, and there is no sec­ond doubt about it. We’ve been do­ing what it takes, so it’s just to go out there and get the three points; it doesn’t mat­ter what we do, we just need to win,” Gar­cia said.

This po­si­tion of des­per­a­tion was caused by the team’s open­ing nil-nil tie with Cu­ra­cao at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um on Oc­to­ber 5, a po­si­tion that was fur­ther com­pound­ed by a 2-0 loss to Ja­maica in Kingston four days lat­er.

The re­sults left the T&T foot­ballers with just a point out of six and in a must-win sit­u­a­tion for their next four match­es if they are to qual­i­fy for the 2026 FI­FA World Cup that will be staged in the Unit­ed States, Cana­da, and Mex­i­co. Yes­ter­day, Levi and his team­mates held their fi­nal train­ing ses­sion at the Mi­a­mi Camp, staged at the Fort Laud­erdale Unit­ed FC Sta­di­um, where the play­ers met up and worked out be­fore leav­ing for Bermu­da.

Levi, the scor­er of three goals for T&T against Ja­maica in an even­tu­al 2-0 loss, said, “It has been two good ses­sions thus far. We have a trip to Bermu­da short­ly, but things have been go­ing well. As you can see, every­body’s sharp and every­body’s ready and ready for the game on Fri­day. It was a dif­fi­cult one for me per­son­al­ly and for every­one be­cause af­ter such a great per­for­mance, we didn’t get the re­sult we want­ed but ful­ly fo­cused on Fri­day. We know the im­por­tance of these three points, so we’ll take them one step at a time.”

The Spar­tak Moscow at­tack­er could hold the cards for a win for T&T. In two match­es, the team has strug­gled to score, with not a sin­gle goal in two match­es, while con­ced­ing two goals. Na­tion­al coach Dwight Yorke has made a few key changes in his 26-man squad that he hopes could get them across the line against the Bermu­dans, who were thrashed 4-0 by Ja­maica in their first game and were edged 3-2 in the sec­ond game by Cu­ra­cao.

Gar­cia said he saw some pos­i­tive signs dur­ing their train­ing in Mi­a­mi, say­ing he re­alised every­one seemed to be con­fi­dent both on and off the ball. He said, “It’s on­ly for us to im­ple­ment that in the game now.”

Mean­while, de­fend­er Deron Payne will make his de­but in the T&T colours to­mor­row. Af­ter an in­jury threw him out of the open­ing two match­es, Payne said he is con­fi­dent they can get the re­quired re­sult. We have four big games com­ing up, so I want to give my all and help the team se­cure the points. Asked what he can bring to the T&T team, Payne said, “Hard work, which is what I strive to do. I am a right back, so I want to take down my man, my di­rect op­po­nent, and sup­port my winger and maybe get some as­sists with some goals.”

Ac­cord­ing to Payne of FC Volen­dam in the Dutch Ere­di­visie, the com­ing two match­es are two nice match­es that we have a good chance of win­ning.

SQUAD

Wayne Fred­er­ick II, Dante Sealy, Justin Obik­wu, Justin Gar­cia, An­dre Ram­per­sad, Rio Car­dines, Re­al Gill, Jabari St Hillaire, Den­zil Smith, Noah Pow­der, Kaile Au­vray, Isa­iah Lee, Mo­lik Khan, Jabari Brice, Deron Payne, Ko­bi Hen­ry, Jer­rin Jack­ie, Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham, An­dre Ray­mond, Stef­fen Yeates, Daniel Phillips, Nathaniel James, Kevin Moli­no, Levi Gar­cia, Ryan Telfer, Tyrese Spicer