PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Men’s senior team head coach Angus Eve has summoned a squad of 28 home-based players to begin training ahead of upcoming FIFA international match windows in October and November.
Some members of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup squad were among those at the first session at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex, including goalkeepers Marvin Phillip and Adrian Foncette, forward Reon Moore, midfielder Duane Muckette and defender Alvin Jones.
The other invited players are: goalkeeper Aaron Enill; defenders Curtis Gonzales, Trevin Latapy, Darnell Hospedales, Jameel Neptune, Joshua Alexander, Keshawn Hutchinson, Nigel Carraby, Weslie John and Robert Primus; midfielders Aaron Lester, Dylon King, Hashim Arcia, J’deem Parris, Micah Lansiquot and Kevon Goddard; and attackers/forwards Christian Thomas, John-Paul Rochford, Brent Sam, Isaiah Hudson, Jaheim McFee, Sean Bonval and Tyrese Bailey.
Eve said the squad, which is a mix of experienced and new players, is very enthusiastic.
He is looking to build a formidable team for the CONCACAF Nations League 2022 and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. The two upcoming international match windows run from October 4-13 and November 8-16.
“We’re hoping to maximise those international windows. The first one we would try to get a game that we could use the locally-based players to give them a bit of experience and some of the players who didn’t actually play with me in the Gold Cup so I can have a first-hand viewing of them. There are about six of them,” the head coach said.
“The last window for the year we could bring the full team in after we would have looked at this group and some of the foreigners that we didn’t see before to give ourselves a real platform building onto next year going into the Nations Cup.”
Eve was appointed as interim head coach prior to the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Prelims in June, following an unsuccessful qualification campaign to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. He and his staff then led the team through the Prelims and qualified for the 2021 Gold Cup Group Stage.
His term as interim head coach concluded at the end of August this year and the FIFA-appointed Normalisation Committee of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association earlier this month appointed him on a full-time basis, initially until March 31, 2023.
