Trinidad and Tobago head coach Leo Beenhakker is promising to give his players more time on the pitch in order to make a proper assessment of their progress when this country’s senior footballers take on the Bermuda National Senior team in a friendly encounter at the Hasely Crawford Stadium from 6:30pm on Wednesday.
The game is Beenhakker’s first against international opposition and he will have twenty two players to choose from as he fine tunes to the team for the all-important 2006 World Cup qualifier against Panama on June 4.
Coming in on Tuesday evening were Glasgow Rangers defender Marvin Andrews along with Brent Sancho and Kelvin Jack while New England Revolution defender Avery John was deemed unavailable for the warm-up. Beenhakker said he would decide on matchday whether Andrews and Sancho would play any part in Wednesday’s match following their long journey back home.
Beenhakker conducted two training sessions on Tuesday, one in the morning at the Ato Boldon Stadium and in the evening at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
“This is of course another training exercise for the team before the match against Panama and we will use it as a chance to see more of the players before we select the final team on the weekend,” Beenhakker told TTFF Media on Tuesday. “It presents with a chance to see how much progress has been made over the past week or so and I have also promised the players too that there won’t be too many changes during the game so it means that they will have more to show what they have to offer. It’s a chance to give everyone an opportunity to play so those who don’t take the field in the first game will get a chance on the weekend when we play Bermuda in a second game,” the former Dutch national team coach added.
“I am not being over confident but I do expect us to give a good showing because the guys know how important it is for us to get things right from these sort of matches before the big ones come up.”
Coventry City striker Stern John will make his first start under Beenhakker while Kenwyne Jones, Leslie Fitzpatrick, Brent Rahim, Carlos Edwards, Hector Sam, Dennis Lawrence, Ian Cox and Chris Birchall are all expected to take some part in Wednesday’s encounter which skipper Dwight Yorke will miss as he is still in England taking care of personal business before returning for the final live-in training camp ahead of the Panama match.
Kyle Lightbourne, coach of the Bermudan team which arrived on Tuesday, said is team which comprises several talented Under 23 players were anticipating the match and were prepared to give the “Warriors” a good test having drawn 2-2 with them last February which was followed by an exciting 2-2 draw with El Salvador and 3-3 draw with St Vincent and the Grenadines.
While Beenhakker is working on getting his final squad together, Panama head coach Jose Hernandez summoned five new players for his team’s friendly with Venezuela on Wednesday in Caracas. They include Oscar McFarlane, Luis Henriquez, Jose Justavino, Leonel Parrish and Cecilio Garces.