HEAD coach of the Trinidad and Tobago men’s senior football team Angus Eve believes his players can compete with any team.
He wants the Soca Warriors to show that against Canada in the Conmebol Copa America play-in in Frisco, Texas on March 23.
The winner of the match will qualify for the 2024 Copa America tournament.
Eve spoke to the media during a Soca Warriors training session at Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar, Arima, yesterday.
Eve knows Canada will be a tough assignment, but thinks his players are ready for the challenge.
“Like the US team, the Canada team is built up the same, (with) a lot of European-based players. Some of the players (are) playing in the MLS (Major League Soccer), some playing back home, but most of the players are playing in Europe and they are playing with good teams...but we think we can go in there, we think we can compete with anyone right now and we want to show that. We want to show that confidence that we could go out on the park and compete with anyone.”
When T&T reached the 2006 Fifa World Cup, almost all the local players were playing for foreign clubs. The majority of T&T’s players now are playing locally, but Eve was glad to know that two players will be heading abroad soon. Reon Moore of Defence Force and Real Gill of Club Sando both signed to play overseas. Moore is heading to the Canadian Premier Leage and Gill to the United Soccer League in the US.
Eve said, “It shows that the work that we are doing and people are identifying players again, because we (once) had the same set of players getting contracts all the time...this is a new batch of players who are getting contracts, and I could tell you, when people see them playing with the national team, that is how they get that sort of exposure.
“It shows that people are watching us again and watching our players and that augurs well for the country and for the team on a whole.”
Asked what he wants to see from his players against Canada, Eve said, “We just have to be tactically aware.
“A coach can only give instructions. When the players go out there, they have to have the mindset to play the position, to play the role that the coaches give them to the best of their ability...because for 90 minutes, a coach could never tell a player for every second of every minute of every part of a game what to do.”
T&T will have two practice matches against Jamaica in early March in Trinidad, ahead of the Copa America qualifier against Canada. The Reggae Boyz trip to Trinidad follows the Soca Warriors tour of Jamaica last year for two friendly matches.
“They promised to return that favour to us, so these two games are supposed to be in early March. We will use those games as the final two warm-up games going into the Conmebol playoff match and when that happens, then we will pick that final squad.”
Eve is pleased that T&T striker Levi Garcia has been scoring frequently for his Greek club, AEK Athens. He is also satisfied that other T&T footballers are playing regularly.
“A number of the players are playing in the Pro League (TT Premier League) and doing very well for their respective clubs...a lot of players here (in the training camp) have been in the pool and we continue to use them.”
Speaking about the training camp, Eve said he felt “really good.
“The intensity of the players (is up to mark) and I said that in the first year of the (TT Premier) League that it would take some time for the players to build back up their rhythm after covid and not playing football for a while.
“This is the first time that the guys have played back-to-back seasons, and you can see the effects of that.”