Soca Warriors's coach Russell Latapy will hold his penultimate training session this morning from 9 am with his training squad at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo ahead of the team's departure for Martinique on Tuesday. T&T will line-up to contest the fourth Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals and 14th hosted by the Caribbean Football Union overall. Latapy, who will be at the helm of the team for the first time at the championships will have a closed door session today while he will also have a training session tomorrow at the same venue before naming his final 20-man squad for the tournament. Yesterday, DC United defender, Julius James was expected to join the team while fellow US-based defender, Yohance Marshall of the LA Galaxy arrives today.
The two other foreign-based players in the training squad, Keon Daniel and Kendall Jagdeosingh, both of Puerto Rico Islanders, have already returned home. Looking ahead to the eight-team final in Martinique, David Muhammad, manager of the team said he does not feel the team will be too affected by not playing a friendly international since ending Second Round qualification on November 6, with a 4-0 win over Haiti at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.
" I don't think it will affect the guys all that much. We had hopes to get in another match, but it did not materialised. That's now in the past and we are now focus on getting ready for our first match against Cuba on Friday.
In Martinique, seven-time winners (1989, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999) and ten-time qualifiers for the Finals, T&T will also come up against 2008's beaten finalist Grenada (November 28) and the host country on December 2 in their round-robin Group H matches at the Dillon Pierre Aliker Stadium, Fort-de-France. From the four-team group, the top two will qualify for the semifinals and secure a spot in next year's Concacaf Gold Cup in the USA. Group I comprises, defending champion and four-time winner (1991, 1998, 2004, 2008) Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Antigua & Barbuda. The local squad will go into the tournament as the number one ranked Caribbean team after jumping 28 spots to 78th on the latest Fifa World rankings. The winners of the Digicel Caribbean Cup will collect a record payout of US$120,000 while the runner-up gets US$70,000. Third and fourth spot will get US$50,000 and $US30,000 respectively.
