T&T’s Under-20 footballers will be keen to get back to winning ways on their 15-day tour of Colombia when they come up against America Cali Reserves from 4 pm (TT 5pm) today.
This will be followed by matches against Cortula Cali (Thursday) and Americas First Team on Sunday for the Zoran Vranes-coached team to close out its South American tour as they continue preparations for the Concacaf Under-20 Championship in Guatemala City, later this month.
In Guatemala, T&T faces Cuba and Mexico in group play in the 12-team tournament. After starting the tour with wins over Cali Valle (6-1) and Depor FC (3-1), the Sheldon Bateau captain young Soca Warriors went under to Deportivo Cali, a First Division club, 2-1 on Saturday.
This, after Marcus Joseph had fired T&T ahead only for Cali to equalise on the stroke of half-time before snatching the winner in the final minute.
Speaking after a training session yesterday, Vranes said the tour was going according to plan. “Everything is great so far except for a few guys still carrying slight injuries.
The Yugoslav-born Vranes noted that defender Akeem Adams who missed the last match on Saturday due to injury may see some action today along with W Connection striker Shahdon Winchester and Joe Public defender Jerron Morris.
“They came through the practice session this morning (yesterday) and I am satisfied that they are ready to resume competitive play.
Following today’s match, the T&T team will play one more war-up match in Colombia on Saturday before heading to Honduras on March 22 to face that country’s youth team on the 23 and 25.
This after scheduled matches with Panama and Costa Rica were called off. “We will not be going to Panama as previously stated as they have arranged a match with Cuba instead and did not wanted to play two tough matches before going to Guatemala.
“Our technical staff also felt it was wise to go ahead with the scheduled warm-up match against the Costa Ricans because we could end up facing them in the quarterfinals.
In Guatemala, T&T will open its three-team group series against Cuba on March 30 before facing Mexico two days later as they attempt to qualify for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup to be hosted in Colombia later this year.
The 12-team Concacaf tournament runs from March 28 to April 10 with the teams divided into four groups of three for the preliminary round from which the top two will qualify for the quarterfinals.
The four semi-finalists will qualify for the Fifa Under-20 World Cup. So far, the Asian confederation and UEFA have completed their qualifying competitions with Australia, Korea Republic, Korea DPR, Saudia Arabia, England, Austria, Portugal, Croatia, France and Spain already booking their spots for Colombia.