Venezuela arrives for TTFA youth tourney

The team, coached by Frank Tamana­co Piedrahi­ta, was greet­ed by TTFA vice pres­i­dent Ew­ing Davis and Venezuela Am­bas­sador to T&T Car­los Perez on their ar­rival at the Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

Perez wel­comed the team and im­me­di­ate­ly urged Venezue­lan na­tion­als cur­rent­ly in T&T to come out in full sup­port of the team for all their match­es in the tour­na­ment.

“As Am­bas­sador, I am ex­treme­ly ex­cit­ed, de­light­ed and proud to wel­come the Venezuela na­tion­al Un­der-15 team to Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Perez told TTFA Me­dia.

“It is a proud mo­ment and a great op­por­tu­ni­ty. I see this as a very im­por­tant trip not just for foot­ball but for re­la­tions be­tween the coun­tries. That’s the way it should be and that’s the co­op­er­a­tion we have as coun­tries.

“The Venezue­lan com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad and To­ba­go is a large one and we hope to see every­one at the sta­di­um to sup­port Venezuela and to see all the match­es next week. We want to wish all the teams the best and it is an ho­n­our to have them here.”

The Venezuela un­der-17 team reached the 2018 FI­FA U-17 World Cup and this cur­rent team is be­ing groomed for the next World Cup qual­i­fiers at the U-17 lev­el. Pier­drahi­ta said get­ting to play against Mex­i­co, Pana­ma and T&T in the tour­na­ment was a good op­por­tu­ni­ty for his team.

“This is a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for us to play against in­ter­na­tion­al teams that are prepar­ing for in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions in the same con­di­tions as us. It will be a good tour­na­ment with strong teams and we are look­ing for­ward to it. We will work to­wards play­ing our style of foot­ball which we hope to im­press with and to com­pete well in every match that we play here,” Pier­drahi­ta told TTFA Me­dia.

Venezuela faces Mex­i­co at 5.15 pm on Wednes­day with T&T tak­ing on Pana­ma at 7.15 pm at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um. Mex­i­co and Pana­ma ar­rive in T&T to­day.

In related news, the TT Football Association (TTFA) will offer fans the opportunity to view all matches in this tournament via a global livestream and broadcast on local television.

The matches starting with today’s double header at the Ato Boldon Stadium will be available via OZ Sports after the TTFA completed negotiations to partner with the Iceland-based company. OZ have also partnered with Concacaf for livestreaming of its matches including the just concluded 2019 Gold Cup.

Fans will be able to access the games at US$2.99 per match and US$7.99 per matchday or US$19.99 for matches on all three matchdays. The stream will be available via the OZ app and further details on additional access options will be provided shortly.