Back in training with the Trinidad and Tobago senior men’s national team, Mekeil Williams feels the time is ripe to re-focus, both for himself and for football in T&T as a whole.
Williams’ comment came on November 19, the day when FIFA lifted its brief suspension of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA), giving the senior men’s team the opportunity to compete in important qualifying tournaments next year.
With Trinidad and Tobago not having played since a 4-0 CONCACAF Nations League defeat to Honduras a year ago, and no local football taking place since quarantine restrictions were imposed in March, to battle the Covid-19 outbreak, Williams knows the difficulty of the upcoming task in 2021, when the “Soca Warriors” enter qualification for the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
“It will be a challenge definitely. I think we just have to focus and put our best foot forward because its not going to be easy,” declared Williams. “Everybody has to focus, come together, focus on the task at hand, and just get things going.”
Since leaving W Connection in 2012, Williams, 30, has played in Denmark, with two Guatemalan clubs, and in both the top flight Major League Soccer (MLS) and the second tier United Soccer League (USL) in the United States.
Known as “Splash”, Williams filled a regular spot at left-back in the senior national team and was part of coach Stephen Hart’s exciting 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup outfit which reached the quarter-final stage and featured in a thrilling 4-4 draw with Mexico, before going out to Panama on penalty kicks.
However, in recent times, Williams has had less of a permanent grip on the left-back position, with the likes of Neveal Hackshaw, the versatile Aubrey David, Tristan Hodge and Keston Julien, all vying for the spot.
Williams has just returned from the USA, after leaving his Guatemalan club Municipal when the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March. “When the pandemic first struck I was in Guatemala. At the time, with the uncertainty and not knowing what was going to take place, I had to make the decision,” Williams said.
“So I took the opportunity to go to the USA, because I know it would have been easier to come home from there, and just ride it out until I got the opportunity to get home.”
For Williams, 2021 is a big year for football and one in which he hopes to cement a spot in national coach Terry Fenwick’s squad for the two upcoming tournaments. He know that he has to put in the work.
“Right now, at the moment, I am definitely unfit. So, I know I have some work to do to get back up to fitness,” Williams said. “I think with a lil’ time, I’ll get there.”
SOURCE: T&T Express