Na­tion­al se­nior men's foot­ball team in­ter­im coach Derek King will make a few changes to his start­ing team for Tuesday’s CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League clash with French Guiana at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let, To­ba­go, from 7 pm. 

King, who was ap­point­ed af­ter the T&TFA and head coach An­gus Eve part­ed ways in Ju­ly, told the me­dia Mon­day (Sep­tem­ber 9) that he will make a change in his sys­tem of play af­ter the So­ca War­riors went down to a heavy 4-0 de­feat to Hon­duras on Fri­day (Sep­tem­ber 6) in Tegu­ci­gal­pa, Hon­duras. 

The changes are ex­pect­ed to pro­vide the pub­lic with en­ter­tain­ing foot­ball, which King said the coun­try needs right now. 

T&T last played against French Guiana in a CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup Qual­i­fi­er at the DRV PNK Sta­di­um in Ju­ly 2021 and pre­vailed 8-7 from the penal­ty spot, a re­sult that fol­lowed a 1-1 tie at the end of reg­u­la­tion time. 

Speak­ing be­fore the team’s fi­nal train­ing ses­sion be­fore the team took the pitch, King said his team had done its home­work and is ready for the con­test. “We analysed our last game; we did some good stuff with the team. We did video ses­sions, and the play­ers are ea­ger; they’ve learnt from their mis­takes, and I think, come to­mor­row, the team will be ready to go,” King said. 

He said, “We did some video ses­sions, and the play­ers saw for them­selves that they made some sim­ple er­rors, and at in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball, you don’t get away with some of the mis­takes that you would make. I think the guys will learn from their mis­takes; they are ea­ger to grow, and they know how im­por­tant the three points are to­mor­row.” 

King has been at­tempt­ing to re­verse the de­fen­sive style of foot­ball T&T played by his pre­de­ces­sor, which has not gone down too well with the lo­cal pub­lic. He told the me­dia that though the game is won or lost on the day, he wants to sat­is­fy the fans with at­trac­tive foot­ball. 

“Know­ing my phi­los­o­phy, it’s im­por­tant that we get a vic­to­ry. We want to play en­ter­tain­ing foot­ball be­cause I think T&T de­serves a vic­to­ry, so come to­mor­row (tonight), the guys know the im­por­tance of the three points for us to have a chance to qual­i­fy for the quar­ter­fi­nals. The game is won on the day; we’re not un­der­es­ti­mat­ing any team, and I think it’s on the day you have to go out there and earn your three points, tak­ing no team for grant­ed,” King ex­plained. 

It will be on­ly the sec­ond time in two years that the So­ca War­riors will be play­ing at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um. The last game on March 27 last year (2023) saw them be­ing held 1-1 with Nicaragua, a re­sult that en­abled the Nicaraguans to top the group.