T&T's senior men's football team will begin preparations ahead of the CONCACAF Nations League later this year, with an international friendly match against Bolivia on January 21 at the Estadio Olimpico Patrio in Sucre, Bolivia.
The game will also be the first of many this year, which would lead to better preparation than in previous years, as coach Angus Eve was given the assurance they will receive matches during all the FIFA windows this year.
But although the game will be played outside the FIFA window it promises to provide much-needed practice for Eve's charges who have not played since he took up the full-time coaching job in September last year.
Eve himself, who appears to be following in the footsteps of previous coaches by not talking to the media, has already picked a blend of senior and young players for the match, saying in an interview it is an opportunity to give the players a much-needed run-out and have them playing football again at an international level.
" It's really good to be back out on the pitch, you can see the enthusiasm in the players. Everyone that we called out today was present. The enthusiasm was really good, we have some young players in the mix like Nathaniel James, Jesse Williams, Molik Khan and those boys, so it was a good blend of the senior players along with the young ones.
It probably came a little too early for us because we haven't been playing football, but it's an opportunity we had to take to give the players a bit of experience because as you know, in the last three windows we weren't able to play with all the stuff going on behind the scenes.
Now we have gone into a new year things hopefully look brighter with the FA and they have gotten this game for us so we couldn't say no."
Defender Abrey David, the T&T Football Association 2021 Player of Year is not on the roster for the match as well as other key players such as khaleem Hyland, Sheldon Bateau etc but Eve will be certain he has a more-than-competitive team for the encounter.
Bolivia will also use the encounter as preparation for their back to back South American World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Chile on January 28 and February 2.
Eve assured that his target is the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
TT SQUAD
Goalkeepers
Aaron Enill, Adrian Foncette, Marvin Phillip
Defenders
Alvin Jones, Jamal Jack, Jameel Neptune, Jesse Williams, Justin Garcia, Keston George, Leland Archer, Mekeil Williams, Radanfah Abu Bakr
Midfielders
AaronLester, Duane Muckette, Hashim Arcia, Isaiah Hudson, Jabari Mitchell, John-Paul Rochford, Justin Sadoo, Kevon Goddard, Matthew Woo Ling, Micah Lansiquot, Michel Poon-Angeron, Molik Khan, Nathaniel James, Neveal Hackshaw
Strikers
Brent Sam, Reon Moore
