Guyana replaces N/Antilles for Tuesday's friendly.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).

The Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation has for the second time in a week had to cancel a proposed friendly international match due to unforeseen circumstances. The latest change has been the change in opponent for Tuesday’s friendly international at the Marvin Lee Stadium scheduled for 7:30pm.
It was announced on Thursday that the Netherlands Antilles would be arriving here for the encounter. However there are no flights available to bring the Netherlands team from Curacao to Port of Spain before Tuesday and the Netherlands FA General Secretary Hubert Isiena expressed his regret at this on Saturday.
“We are disappointed that an unavailability of flights to take the team to Trinidad in time for Tuesday has forced us to cancel the trip,” Isiena said.
There remained the possibility of the team being able to arrive later in the week but the TTFF and it’s Senior Team coaching staff preferred not to change the match schedule and will in fact stage a friendly international on Tuesday. The Guyana National Senior team will now face T&T at the same venue.
Team manager David Mohammed commented: “We had no choice but to ensure that we go ahead with a scheduled friendly for the date. We have scheduled a program with players attending training sessions etc and we felt there was the obvious need to play an international game. Unfortunately it’s not Netherlands Antilles or one of the Central American nations but Guyana we know have been improving and they are now focusing on qualification for the Digicel Cup and we expect they will present us with a good challenge on Tuesday.”
Meantime, recalled National Team striker Cornell Glen says he is hoping to press his claims to becoming a regular fixture on the team following his latest call up by Francisco Maturana.
“It’s good to get the recall and I just want to help the country as best as I can,” Glen told TTFF Media after his first session on Friday at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
“It’s been frustrating having to look on at the team playing the last few games knowing that I wasn’t able to make a contribution. I know a lot of the other guys have felt the same way. We have supported the rest of the players but at the same time we also want to make a contribution and I’m happy to have gotten this chance now.
“I’m still working on my form.. I’m maybe about 90 percent fully ready and I just hope to get some more playing time which is exactly what I need right now.”
Glen said that he felt assured that the Maturana and his staff will continue to monitor the players and pick the ones worthy of selection on merit.
“Definitely I think the coach is still looking at us. I think he’s doing well to keep the confidence level up among the players in the Pro League but I think he’s also monitoring the senior players and still has hopes of involving the ex-World Cup players who haven’t been involved too much. But generally I think he’s trying to build a team right now and you can’t fault that … it’s good too that he is willing to give the players an opportunity before he settles on a squad.”
The former LA Galaxy and Columbus Crew player still has ambitions of plying his trade overseas.
“That’s part of my career that I think is incomplete. I’m working on getting back out there, maybe in Europe and finishing on a high. I spent three years in the MLS and I’m disappointed that I didn’t win any titles or trophies.
“I’m fully recovered from the injuries, especially the one from the World Cup. It’s been more of a mental battle… having to get the thought of the injury out of my mind and being able to play and give my best. I’m working towards becoming back a fully fit player and I’m just looking to go all out and help the country qualify for the next World Cup,” Glen concluded.

Seniors to now face Netherland Antilles.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
     
A proposed two-match tour of Central America for this country's National Senior Men's team has been put off due to the unavailability of El Salvador and Honduras national teams. This was confirmed by the TTFF on Thursday and alternative plans are being made to have the Netherlands Antilles travel to play here on July 8. Speaking on Thursday, Special Advisor Jack Warner said efforts were also being made to have matches against Peru and Venezuela.
"Unfortunately after we were able to get the two games, our friends in both Honduras and El Salvador informed us that their teams would be heavily understrength because of their club football and we then felt it would be of little use to send our team there at this point. We also tried for Suriname but they could not get things arranged in time for a game next week," Warner said.
"We felt then that the Netherlands Antilles will be good for the occasion after they just narrowly lost out to Haiti in the World Cup qualification. We also have a South American agent working on the matches in that continent for us at the moment and we hope to have firm details on this later in the month." Netherlands Antilles FA General Secretary Hubert Isiena confirmed his team's arrival for the game.
"We will come definitely to play the game. It is always a great opportunity to play against Trinidad. We had very high hopes for the qualifiers and we were very unfortunate to go out against Haiti. At the moment we are not giving up and we are preparing for the Digicel Cup. We also have three players who were born in Holland and are still with us. They will travel with the team to Trinidad next week," Isiena said. Skipper Aurtis Whitey is out with injury while Darryl Roberts is also unavailable.

T&T seniors off to Central America.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).

Trinidad and Tobago's Senior Team will leave on the weekend to play back to back friendly internationals against El Salvador (on Tuesday July 8th) and Honduras (July 10th) in those respective countries. This was confirmed by the TTFF as it attempts to allow the "Soca Warriors" valuable warm up preparation prior to its August 20 World Cup qualifier against Cuba in Havana.
However, the team will be without several of its overseas-based players due to club commitments with the games also falling outside of the FIFA International Calendar. Missing will be Dennis Lawrence, Carlos Edwards, Stern John, Clayton Ince, Jan Michael Williams and Jason Scotland among others.
Head coach Francisco Maturana has recalled Charleston Battery striker Randi Patterson while Darryl Roberts is doubtful due to his possible signing with a new club in Europe this week. Puerto Rico Islanders' Kendall has also been invited for the two matches.
T&T also has possible warm ups scheduled away to Venezuela and then home to Ecuador and Suriname leading up to the start of the semi-final round. All these mentioned teams are still in the race for qualification towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Ecuador next faces Bolivia while Venezuela meets Peru on September 6. Suriname tackles Haiti while Honduras are away to Mexico and El Salvador travels to Costa Rica on August 20.
"These are two good games for us at this time and I think they will be important for these players before we face Cuba," Maturana told TTFF Media. "We have called a couple of new players but the majority will be from the local base because the other players have to return to their various clubs. But we will still use these games as our preparation because after getting past Bermuda, it is now necessary for us to keep on working and improving for the start of the next round."
Should there fail to be an agreement to the use of a local stadium for the September 6 match against Guatemala, the TTFF has secured use of a venue in New Jersey for the World Cup qualifier.

T&T Squad:

1.Marvin Phillip – W Connection
2.Glenroy Samuel – Caledonia AIA
3.Kareem Smith – United Petrotrin
4.Kern Cupid – W Connection
5.Makan Hislop – United Petrotrin
6.Anton Pierre – Defence Force
7.Michael Edwards – Defence Force
8.Keyeno Thomas – Joe Public F.C.
9.Aklie Edwards – Defence Force
10.Kerry Noray – Joe Public
11.Keon Daniel – United Petrotrin
12.Khaleem Hyland – Unattached.
13.Kevon Carter – Defence Force
14.Aurtis Whitley –  W Connection
15.Stephan David – Caledonia AIA
16.Ataullah Guerra – Clico San Juan Jabloteh
17.Randi Patterson – Charleston Battery
18.Kendall Jagdeosingh – Puerto Rico Islanders
19.Jerol Forbes – United Petrotrin
20.Darryl Roberts – Unattached

Sancho heads to Wrexham.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
   
Defender Brent Sancho returns to England on Monday in an attempt to get his professional career back on track. The former Gillingham stopper will go straight into training at Wrexham AFC. Sancho has been in Trinidad for the past couple months and has been working on his fitness, at times also training with Clico San Juan Jabloteh. He has had interest from a couple clubs following the end of his Ross County stint last season.
“I’ve had  talks with a couple clubs but I’ll be going to Wrexham first and spend a few days there training and then see how things go from there,” Sancho said.
He seems to have heard some of the advice coming from Francisco Maturana last week on players who need to be back playing full time at the club level.
“To be fair I haven’t been playing because obviously the season’s been out but I understand that a coach will emphasize that players need to be training and playing that’s what I know I have to do in the season coming up. At the end of the day any player has to be in good physical shape to get into a team.
“I think it was important that the national team got over that last hurdle (in Bermuda) and now we have to look ahead to the semi final round and definitely try to prepare the team as best as possible for the upcoming matches. We have a good chance as any other team to progress in this campaign,” he added. Former Wrexham winger Carlos Edwards said his old club would be a good option.
“He will like it there because the facilities at the club are excellent and the club will come right back up. The town there is a good place to live as well,” Edwards said.
Midfielder Silvio Spann is also at Wrexham for the club’s preseason preparations.
Meantime national midfielder Khaleem Hyland is expected to head back to Portsmouth this week and is reportedly closer to tying up a deal with the club which has kept tabs on him for the past few months. Dwight Yorke as well is also back in Sunderland and an announcement is expected to be made by the club regarding his status.
Yorke, who played for Sydney FC before joining Sunderland in August 2006, held talks with Central Coast Mariners about a return to the A-league only for the move to fall through, a report on tribalfootball.com stated.
"That would have been my ambition, to come back here," Yorke told the Australian newspaper the Daily Telegraph.
"I felt this year would have been the year to come back and stamp my authority in terms of playing football and getting the football buzzing around Sydney again.
"My last conversation (with the Mariners) was, 'Yeah, we'll get it sorted'. We looked at a figure that was reasonable for them, it wasn't great for me but I was prepared to come for that.
"Sunderland have offered me a contract because they know I can still produce it," he added.
"I'm 36, there's no secret there. I'm coming to the end of my career, I'm looking for something with a bit more flavour - in terms of lifestyle, the weather, people and food. Sydney fits that bill."
T&T winger Carlos Edwards will also head back to Sunderland later this week to join in their preseason campaign.

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