National team head coach Leo Beenhakker has indicated his intentions of adding new blood to the “Soca Warriors” line up as they prepare to go into preparation gear ahead of June’s 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Beenhakker, in his first appearance for the local media since his return to Trinidad on Monday, that he will have maybe three new players in the squad to face Iceland on February 28 but is also aiming to protect the squad of players which took care of the job of getting T&T to its first ever World Cup.
Over the past few weeks, Beenhakker and assistant coach have been viewing some T&T talent in the UK Leagues and will continue to look at other local talent as he intends to have training camps here with players which he says he still needs to decide on.
“There are a few other players, new players that we saw. At least they all made an impression that they deserve a chance to demonstrate if they can be very valuable to the team yes or no. I will invite one or two of these guys for the Iceland game I will advise these guys without any guarantees and conclusions,” Beenhakker said.
“The actual situation in relation with the 23 players that will go to Germany is that normally when they are fit, and in good shape, when they play more regular with their clubs, about 15 or 16 from the have their ticket for Germany already,” he explained, adding that he hopes to find more left sided players and maybe younger ones because of the fact that only Avery John is left footed on the team currently and that there are still some veterans in the team who could be complimented by younger legs.
“That means that the door is still open for several players to step into the team. It’s early now to say if we will have changes to the team and in that way we are still working on it.
“But once again, the most important part is to take care and to protect the actual team and to give them all the credit and all the respect and protect the team spirit. From one side the door is open and the other side the first option is with the players who did the job.”
His intention is to look at the home-based players alongside Rijsbergen and assistant Anton Corneal.
“First of all, we don’t have to forget that there several local players who were part of the team before that will now have the possibility to make the step to the team. It’s a difficult situation because they have no club activities at the moment. What we will do now is give our attention to these players.
“Based on the job Anton did the last few weeks with the Under 21 and Under 23 players, we possibly have some interesting players who at the moment are still working, living and playing in the USA. We will give them the chance. Apart of that, you can imagine there are a lot of stuff to arrange around the World Cup and the preparations. We will have a lot of meetings with Mr Warner and the management team of the federation to arrange everything perfectly over the months of May and June,” the former Real Madrid coach added.
Responding to questions about his change of mind to play a final farewell match versus Peru in May after earlier saying he was against any matches in Port of Spain, Beenhakker said he understood fully that the people wanted to their team in action and as such, he saw no problem in fitting it into the preparation schedule.
“I have said from the beginning that listen, the World Cup will be played in Europe so that is normal that you make your preparations also in Europe and you look for opponents who have relation in their style and mentality of playing in relation to Sweden, England and Paraguay. On the other hand I understand very well that it is a very historic moment in T&T .There is a lot of interest from all sides to have a farewell game. At the moment Mr Warner is discussing with me and I agree. I have no problem to be here. But I am looking forward to have a great farewell game here in May.”
He’s also hoping the likes of Densill Theobald(Falkirk) and Cyd Gray and Aurtis Whitley can make a good impression in Europe.
“First of all I am very happy for them to have the possibility to play overseas. For many of the guys here its a dream to play over there.Wha happened to Densill is great for him especially in relation to his age. Hopefully they can find a club there and realize their dreams I will manage them the same as the other overseas players and in that way it makes no difference for me. It’s the same with me. At least I know when they are there , they are fully training because the season will go on there they wont have any breaks,. They will play their matches so it’s great stuff that they are there.”
He also reflected on the draw in relation to his arranging of preparations for June.
“ I like the group very much. First of all, I wouldn’t say it’s an honour, but it’s always something special to play England for everybody who lives in the football world because England is team with great history and especially because most of the players are playing in England, it’s special to play them. Sweden is a very interesting opponent with a totally different style – a Scandanavian style but it’s one of the better European teams Paraguay has the Latin American style of football and I like that.
“Most of all, on one side we came as the last team to qualify for the World Cup, we are the smallest team, but at the same time, we can have a good preparation for what will be three very tough matches to have any possibility to go to the second round. On the other hand, its not impossible,” he added, explaining that the team has had only four and five days prior to previous matches and he thinks it will benefit more now with an extended time for preparation.
Asked about whether he was satisfied with the way T&T’s preparation schedule has been drawn up, the Dutchman replied with a laugh: “Yes I am very satisfied because I did it myself so hopefully I’m satisfied about it.”
“We made, within the circumstances, the perfect preparation. We have a general schedule where we will start here on May 7/8, a few days before the Peru game. Then we go to England where have found a wonderful location for 8 or 9 days. There will do a lot of fitness based on football so we won’t be running a marathon there. Then we have two weeks in Austria where it’s perfect conditions to work there with a fantastic pitch near the hotel. We have the chance to play four games there with three official friendly internationals and one against a club team. Then it’s easy from there to make our trip tour base camp in Germany.
“In that way, in my opinion and based on our experience, it’s absolutely perfect,” Beenhakker ended.