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Mon, Mar

Eve settles on Under-20 final team
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Less than 24 hours after head coach Angus Eve named his squad for the Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship in Honduras next week, the team was beaten 2-1 in its second warm-up match against Costa Rica in Costa Rica on Saturday.

T&T’s lone goal was scored by Jaheim Faustin, who was not named in the final squad along with Curtis Del Leon and Tristan Edwards.

The team is expected to be led by Molik Khan, the experienced midfielder who is currently campaigning with the senior Soca Warriors in the Concacaf Nations League Group B.

T&T will open its Group F campaign against Haiti on June 19th at the Estadio Morazan in San Pedro Sula and will face Mexico on June 21st and Suriname on June 23 at the same venue.

The top three teams in the group will advance to the round of 16, where they will be joined by the four teams advancing from the 2021 Concacaf U-20 Championship qualifying. Unlike the previous editions, the competition will determine not only the four Concacaf representatives at the 2023 Fifa U-20 World Cup in Indonesia but also the two Concacaf representatives at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

The T&T team, under the supervision of assistant coach Reynold Carrington, battled to a goalless draw with the Central Americans in their first meeting on Wednesday. Following the match, the team was boosted with the likes of forward Tarik Lee, defender Christian Bailey and Tristan Edwards all of whom missed the first match because of the CXC Exams.

Austria-based defender Noah Roka also joined the team on the day of the match after his exams.

Head coach Angus Eve, who is presently on duty with the senior T&T men’s team and senior team midfielder Khan will join the contingent on Tuesday in San Jose, Costa Rica following T&T’s Concacaf Nations League match against St Vincent and the Grenadines Monday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

This match will conclude the ten-day training camp ahead of the Under-20 Championship in Honduras.

The Soca Warriors have always been competitive at the Concacaf U-20 level and also have two third-place finishes (1974, 1986) to their name while they have also qualified for two U-20 World Cups (1991 in Portugal and 2009in Egypt).

Overall, the Caribbean side boasts a 24W-22D-36L record, with 104 goals scored and 140 conceded. Isaiah Lee (4) and Jabari Mitchell (3) are T&T’s all-time top scorers in the competition.

The quartet of Cuba, Canada, USA and St Kitts and Nevis are in Group E; El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Aruba are in Group G, and Costa Rica, Jamaica, Antigua & Barbuda and host Honduras comprise Group H.

At the end of the group stage round-robin action, the top three teams in the group will advance to the Round-of-16 where they will join already qualified Curacao, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic who all qualified directly as winners of their respective groups in the Concacaf Men’s U-20 Championship Qualifiers held last November in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

The 16-team Knockout Stage will begin with the round-of-16 (June 25-26), followed by the quarterfinals (June 28-29), semifinals (July 1), and final (July 3).

Unlike the previous editions, the competition will determine not only the four Concacaf representatives at the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia but also the two Concacaf representatives at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.