In just over a month, the country's Under-15 footballers will take the field in the Concacaf Under-15 Championships in Aruba from August 4-10, and will have to dig deep to be elevated to League A.
Coach Densill Theobald said that because of the country's current rank in the Concacaf region, the players (country) will have to play in League B of the play-off, which is designed for countries outside of the region's top 10 rank.
This position puts Theobald and his charges up against the regular campaigners.
Contacted yesterday, Theobald, who has been in charge of the High-Performance Programme for the past several years, said they intend to try to be elevated from their current standings.
"We would be playing in League B of the Concacaf Championships and not League A. League A will consist of the top 10-ranked Concacaf countries, which consist of the USA, Mexico, Canada, Honduras and these countries.
"Because we're outside of the top 10, we have to resign to League B, which includes Guatemala, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, T&T, and Bermuda, to name a few. The team has not been selected as yet. We're now finishing off the screening process, which consists of inter-zonal matches where we would have identified and seen over 200 players, playing for their respective zones.
"Also, we would have restarted with the group of players that played the U-14 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Tournament in Tobago last year and add a couple of players to it, then we would keep adding players from the inter-zonal matches as well. So, with that process in place, we will continue to train, we will continue to see talent, how they integrate and adapt to the players that you can call your core group and basically see how the new players adjust and adapt, and continue with the screening process," Theobald said.
With the tournament on the doorsteps, Theobald who has successfully coached the Defence Force to the Tier I title and First Citizens Bank Cup in this season of the T&T Premier Football League with an unblemished record, admitted that it is sort of tight timeframe to prepare his players, but they will continue to work with them.
"We can expect a group of about 25 players including some foreign players, who would have expressed an interest to play within the ranks, so we still have to see them integrate and adapt and adjust, then we will bring it down to the 16-man squad that will play from August 4-10 in Aruba. And yes, it is tight, but it's a situation that we have no control over as coaches."
Theobald, who represented the T&T Soca Warriors during the 2006 stint at the FIFA World Cup in Germany, told Guardian Media Sports yesterday that you just have to make the best of situations like these.
"The truth is that whenever the opportunity presents itself for you to serve your country in the capacity of coach, it's always a pleasure, always grateful for the opportunity. Of course, you would like things to be much better than it is, but it is what it is, and we have to make use of what we are served," Theobald said.
