WAL­TER AL­IBEY

Cen­tral FC will be­gin its quest for a third CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Club Cham­pi­onship ti­tle to­day, tak­ing on Ja­maican team Port­more Unit­ed at the Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

The game, the first of a dou­ble head­er at the venue, will be played at 5pm and will be fol­lowed by a clash be­tween home­team At­lanti­co FC and Haiti's Rac­ing FC from 8pm.

The Cen­tral 'Sharks' as they are pop­u­lar­ly known, re­ceived some much need­ed fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from Hy­dro Tech Lim­it­ed, the pre­mier sup­pli­er of in­te­grat­ed so­lu­tion ser­vices with­in the up­stream oil and gas in­dus­try, fol­low­ing a tur­bu­lent sea­son that saw the ex­its of play­ers and coach­es alike.

The for­mer hat-trick win­ners of the T&T Pro League al­so got fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance from Lol­labee Group of com­pa­nies. The club was sup­port­ed with a spon­sor­ship cheque of TT$20,000 to­wards its re­gion­al cam­paign.

But to­day the team, un­der coach Stern John will be hop­ing to put that be­hind them in Group B of the play-off, hav­ing won the re­gion­al ti­tle back in 2015 and 2016. The 'Sharks' will in fact be car­ry­ing the bur­den of a qual­i­fy­ing berth in the cham­pi­onship for the na­tion, as W Con­nec­tion, the oth­er com­pet­ing team, failed to ad­vance from Group A at the Ato Boldon in Cou­va last week.

Af­ter this af­ter­noon's en­counter the Sharks will take on Rac­ing in the first game on Fri­day, be­fore they com­plete their cam­paign against At­lanti­co FC at 8pm on Sun­day.

The top two teams from the group will move on to a se­mi-fi­nal play-off with Ja­maica's Ar­nett Gar­dens and Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic's Ath­leti­co Pan­to­ja, the two qual­i­fy­ing teams from Group A in May, and from it the win­ning team will qual­i­fy for the CON­CA­CAF Club Cham­pi­onship.

The sec­ond and third place teams mean­while will earn au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the CON­CA­CAF League, set to be­gin ten­ta­tive­ly from Au­gust. The fourth placed team will square-off with the top team of a pro­posed CON­CA­CAF Sec­ond Tier to take place this year for the first time.

CEN­TRAL FC CLUB

1. Javon Sam­ple - GK

3. Tyrik John - DEF

5. Car­lyle Mitchell - DEF (CAPT)

7. Saleem Hen­ry - MID

8. Cor­nell Glen - FWD

9. Ty­rone Charles - MID

10. Keron Cum­mings - MID

11. Dar­ren Mitchell - MID

12. Taryk Samp­son - DEF

13. Rhon­del Gib­son - MID

15. Kay­dion Gabriel - DEF

17. An­tho­ny Wolfe - DEF

18. Den­sill Theobald - MID (V. CAPT)

19. Ja­son Mar­cano - FWD

22. Jameel Nep­tune - DEF

24. Jules Lee - MID

26. Trevin Lat­apy - DEF

27. Nathan Lewis - MID

29. Jesse Joseph - MID

30. Mon­tel Joseph - GK

Stern John - Head Coach

Walt Nor­ie­ga - As­sis­tant Coach

Saron Joseph - Train­er/Physio

Es­mond Obrien - Equip­ment Man­ag­er

Denise Govia - Team Man­ag­er

MATCH­ES:

Group B (Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic)

To­day's Match­es

Cen­tral FC (T&T) v Port­more Unit­ed FC (JAM), 5pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic;

At­lanti­co FC (DOM) v Rac­ing FC (HAI), 8pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Fri­day's Match­es

Rac­ing FC (HAI) v Cen­tral FC (T&T), 5pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic;

At­lanti­co FC (DOM) v Port­more Unit­ed FC (JAM), 8pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

On Sun­day

Port­more Unit­ed FC (JAM) v Rac­ing FC (HAI), 5pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic;

At­lanti­co FC (DOM) v Cen­tral FC (TRI), 8pm, Es­ta­dio Cibao, San­ti­a­go, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.