T&T’s Men’s football team had its first training session under wet and chilly conditions yesterday in Tehran, Iran ahead of Thursday's international friendly encounter with that country at the Azadi Stadium.
Coach Dennis Lawrence conducted a one-hour session at the Iran Football Federation headquarters training pitch soon after the team's arrival from a 14-hour journey from Fort Lauderdale, USA to Dubai on Sunday.
It rained for most of the day Sunday with temperatures reaching 15 degrees during the midday session, before dropping to a further 11 degrees by 6 pm.
The Irani national team, being coached by Carlos Queiroz also trained at the facility prior to T&T’s session.
T&T will be captained by Khaleem Hyland and he will have the support of Charleston Battery’s US-based midfielder Attaula Guerra, German-based winger Joevin Jones and Kazakhstan-based defender Sheldon Bateau, along with Saudi Arabia-based duo Daneil Cyrus and Lester Peltier, who is back in the team after a three-year absence.
Hyland said the game against Iran will be one of T&T’s biggest assignment in some time. “We know the quality that Iran has. They have a huge coach and they are just coming off a strong showing at the World Cup” Hyland said.
“We played against them before the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and I think this is a game for us to see what level we are at and where we have to go. I expect a tough game as the conditions change a lot in Saudi Arabia. One minute it can be very humid and then very cold. We are over here to get a job done and we’ll try to stay focused and go out and do what we are here for and try to get a positive result,” Hyland added.
Lawrence and his troops T&T are preparing for the 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup and CONCACAF Nations League, and Hyland noted, “These are important games and you can only get better playing teams like these because they play in World Cup every four years and I think it’s a great opportunity to finally get ready for the Gold Cup and Nations League next year by playing teams of this high quality."
According to Hyland “We knew when Dennis took over the team it was a very difficult period. He was trying to patch up things and it was not the easiest of positions for any coach to come in under. Right now we are at a great level since then."
Queiroz named a 24-man squad weekend for friendlies against T&T and Venezuela. The squad includes star forward Karim Ansarifard, who played at the 2018 World Cup.
The striker, who scored the equaliser for his country in a 1-1 draw with Portugal at the World Cup, recently joined Nottingham Forest from Olympiacos. Club Brugge forward Kaveh Razaei, experienced 34-year-old captain Masoud Shojaei and Kazan-based striker Sardar Azmoun who has 23 goals from 37 matches have all been included in the home team’s roster.