Glasgow Rangers hero Marvin Andrews, defender Brent Sancho and goalkeeper Kelvin Jack will fly in on Tuesday to join the Trinidad and Tobago squad preparing for the June 4 World Cup qualifier against Panama at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
The three Scottish-based pros are the last to join Leo Beenhakker’s live-in training camp before Wednesday’s warm up international against Bermuda scheduled for the Hasely Crawford Stadium from 6:30 pm.
Arriving on the weekend and training on Monday morning with the rest of the team at the Larry Gomes Stadium was English-based defender Ian Cox as well as Real Salt Lake duo Leslie Fitzpatrick and Marlon Rojas. New England Revolution defender Avery John is unavailable for Wednesday’s game and did not make the trip home. Port Vale’s Chris Birchall was also scheduled to arrive here on Monday.
Andrews, who missed the last two qualifiers against Costa Rica and Guatemala, is still in celebratory mood after his club seized the Scottish Premier League title on Sunday but Sancho’s story is a bit different as his Dundee team got relegated and he learnt on Sunday that he has been released by the club. Sancho also went through some physical pain in his team’s 1-1 draw with Livingston as he required treatment after clashing heads with a Livingston player which caused a tooth to pierce through his lip leading to immediate treatment from the team physiotherapist inside the opening twenty minutes of the match.
“It was blood and sand in that game,” Sancho told TTFF Media. “We went all out for the win but we paid the price in the end for not getting better results earlier in the season and now I just want to put Dundee behind me and concentrate on what’s to come with the national team.”
Sancho has been targeted by a couple clubs in the English Championship League and is weighing other options as well.
“It was disappointing to have to leave the club on this note but I think I have to move on and the manager agreed too that it would be difficult for me to stay here. The owners of the club said it would be tough for them to offer me something decent and they had to let me go. But I have some offers on the table at the moment.
“Right now I’m eager to get on with the football under the new coach back home. The game on the 4th is a huge one for us and putting all the negatives aside is a must going into it. I made my senior debut against Panama back in 1999 and I’m really anticipating this one coming up.”
Meantime, Bermudan team coach Kyle Lightbourne said his team was ready to give a T&T a good run as they are also preparing for a game against Manchester City’s Academy side early next month as part of Shaun Goater’s Grassroots Festival. TTFF special advisor Jack Warner tried other countries such as Cuba, Paraguay and Norway among others but conflicting schedules led to Bermuda being the agreed opponent.
“This was a real surprise – I don’t know if I have seen anything like this happen in football before. But it is good for us and we are hoping to make the most of it,” said Lightbourne.
“It will give us some good match practice ahead of the Man City game. We are not going to turn down the chance to play the games against a top-class side, even if it has been a bit of a rush to get a squad together. We certainly don’t want to get embarrassed down there,” added Lightbourne. “You have to look at the match in context of the preparation but we will be looking to acquit ourselves well and put up the best performance we can.” Goater, Bermuda’s English-based professional is unable to make the trip but US-based pro Barry Nusum will be in the line up.