Sidebar

28
Thu, Mar

Warriors touch down in Windy City.
Typography

Hart expects tough Guatemala challenge

Trinidad and Tobago’s senior men footballers will have a walk through Soldier Field, Chicago tomorrow (Wednesday) on the eve of their opening 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup encounter with Guatemala. They will train once on Wednesday in the early afternoon at the University of Illinois training field.

The Team arrived in Chicago at 3pm TT Time from Fort Lauderdale before settling in at the  Marriott Magnificent Mile hotel.

Head coach Stephen Hart told reporters in Chicago that he is expecting Guatemala to pose a difficult challenge to the “Soca Warriors” but nothing that would be beyond Kenwyne Jones and his teammates.

“I think they will be a difficult opponent for us. We’ve had a look at them on tape and we saw also them against the US a couple days ago. The scoreline was flattering for the Americans because Guatemala also created a lot of scoring chances which they didn’t capitalize on. They have always been a decent team and I expect them to come at us,” Hart said.

“But I think we are also up for this challenge. Our immediate aim is to get out of the group stage which I think we are capable of doing and then of course we are here to go one step better than we did in 2013 which would mean us wanting to get to the quarter finals and then get into the last four,” Hart added before conducting a training session with the team at the University of Illinois Training field at 7pm on Tuesday.

T&T player Joevin Jones is back in familiar territory and would be more accustomed to the conditions here than most of his teammates having been with MLS club Chicago Fire for the past few months.

“It’s great to be here with the national team. I’ve been here playing for a good bit of time now and to be able to play with my country is special. We’ve been working quite hard over the past few days and hopefully we can show it on the field on Thursday,” Jones said.

“I have a few fans at the club here and hopefully they will be supporting us in the match on Thursday. It would be wonderful to taste victory with Trinidad and Tobago here in Chicago,” Jones added.

Slovakia-based winger Lester Peltier was the final player expected to join the team on Tuesday, coming in from Slovakia.