T&T midfielder Jomal Williams is banking on the right combination of youth, experience and chemistry to push the national team through at the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Williams, the 25-year-old W Connection player who is originally from Piccadilly Street in Port-of-Spain, is currently in Minnesota, USA with the T&T team preparing for Tuesday’s opener against Panama at the Allianz Field.
The former Mexican-based midfielder scored two first-half goals to pace T&T to a 7-0 win over local club team Minnesota Eclipse in a training match at the Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium on Thursday evening.
T&T’s other goals were scored by Levi Garcia, a penalty by Kevin Molino, Nathan Lewis and one each from Cordell Cato and Shahdon Winchester.
“We are coming together nicely at the moment. You could never really do enough or think you have done enough because in your mind there’s always more to be done, but at this time I think we are putting in the work and should be ready in time for Panama,” he added.
“It’s a challenging assignment but we came to do something at this Gold Cup. We’ve been working for a long time for this. To some extent, we know that we are outsiders because all the talk is about USA and Mexico, and well Panama has been to the last World Cup and Jamaica were in the last two finals. But we use that as motivation to prove them otherwise. We know it’s going to be difficult but we have shown that we can compete once we put out heads together and play to our best,” Williams added.
Williams wants to represent his home community and the only way he knows is by putting his best out on the pitch.
“It hasn’t been easy coming from Piccadilly street. There are a lot of distractions and if you don’t have a strong head it can break you. People don’t really consider where I came from as a good place to live, but I see it as one of my obstacles that I need to cross in my life and it just motivates me to go on and do better. I grew up with these people so I understand them and I just try to live in love with everyone,” he said.
“It’s most important to represent my people, my community and my country. I feel very happy to be able to show not just T&T but also the world that coming from Piccadilly street, coming from Laventille, there are good things coming from them and it’s a happy feeling to be able to represent where I am from. This keeps motivated and keeps me going because I know there are a lot of young kids looking up at me and I have a responsibility that I need to keep moving forward to show them that aye look, we can still become something regardless of where we come from,” Williams said.