When Dwight Yorke led Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 team on the playing pitch at the Estadio Primeiro Maio Braga in Portugal for its first game of the 1991 FIFA Under 20 World Championship, there was a crowd of 1,720 which witnessed a 2-0 victory for Australia.
Tomorrow (Thursday) Leston Paul will wear the captain’s armband and will lead the T&T team out before what is expected to be a crowd of 80,000 plus fans. How times have changed.
National Under 20 team head coach Zoran Vranes says he has a fair idea of what his starting team will be when the young “Soca Warriors” take on host Egypt in the opening match of the 2009 FIFA Under 20 World Championship in Alexandria on Thursday from 8pm (1pm TT time).
Vranes was speaking prior to the team’s departure from Larnarca Cyprus on its way to Cairo following an eight-day training camp in Aiya Napa. The team is carded to under their first session in Alexandria later this evening (Monday).
Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers will make among the first set of teams arriving in Cairo for the 2009 FIFA Under 20 World Championship when they touch down following the short flight from Lanarca, Cyprus at approximately 10:45pm Sunday night (3:45pm T&T time).
The T&T-22-man squad had one final training session in Aiya Napa on Sunday morning before leaving the Olympic Lagoon Resort having played two warm-up games against Australia and United States on the island.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Under 20 footballers could not end their losing run in Cyprus but again left the pitch with another credible performance despite going down 2-0 to the United States in Friday’s training fixture in Aiya Napa.
In what was their final warm up encounter against international opposition before heading to Egypt on Sunday, the Zoran-Vranes coached team conceded goals on either side of half time and was again guilty of missing decent chances on goal which could have led to a different scoreline.
Trinidad and Tobago will be without the services of US-based striker Cornell Glen for its World Cup qualifiers against Costa Rica and Mexico on October 10 and 14 after the striker damaged his posterior cruciate ligament (PCL)in MLS action on Friday.
Glen, who sustained an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on the other knee in 2006 World Cup game against Paraguay, will undergo further tests and will know the full extent of the problem in three weeks time. There are fears that he could be out for up to nine months.
“It’s not a good feeling when this kind of injury occurs. I felt it pop in the game on Friday and that was it. I’m not going to rush this one at all. I’ll know more in three weeks but it could be as much as nine months out if it’s that bad, “ Glen told TTFF Media on Tuesday.
Glen was in action for San Jose Earthquakes against Colorado Rapids.
An MRI revealed he tore his PCL ligament. (Sept 22,2009)
