Debutant Trinidad and Tobago player Chris Birchall says he’s adjusting to the conditions in the Carribbean and after taking the field for 90 minutes in Wednesday’s warm-up affair with Alianza Lima at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, he’s getting closer to becoming a True ‘Trini’.
The 20-year-old player gave a heartening performance in his first game in the T&T strip and would have left a smile on the face of his mother Jennifer who flew down to see the game and assist in sorting out his T&T passport among other transactions.
The Port Vale player said he was anxious to get his debut game out of the way.
“I felt great being out there today. The lads have been good with me and it was just nice to get my first game out of the way,” Birchall said after the match.
“The result was disappointing but we played some good football in the first half which is encouraging. There’s a are still a lot of things that we have to work on and I we have the time together to sort it out. We know how important the game is on the 4th of June, we’ve got to win that.”
When asked how he has adapted to the weather conditions here, Birchall did admit he was drinking lots of water on his first two days in training but not before Beenhakker could jokingly add “He loves it… he loves it.”
“For the first training session I was tired even though it wasn’t hot but just because of all the humidity. But as the sessions have gone on morning and evening , every session has gotten a bit easier and tonight I felt more comfortable and as time goes on I’m feeling more at home.”
Reflecting on his decision to play for T&T, Birchall said: “It was an easy decision to make. I had a good season with Port Vale and I had a phone call saying I was invited to the Trinidad and Tobago team and there was no question what the answer was going to be. It’s an opportunity for me to play with some great players like Dwight and Clayton and a top class team of coaches and it can only help me in my career as well.”
Team skipper Yorke also shared his thoughts on the debutant by saying “There were some new players in, if you look at Chris, he was phenomenal tonight and that is encouraging from our point of view and I’m sure from the management point of view as well.”