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[jayjensen2]

Haiti new Warriors friendly opponents Monday, July 28 2008

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO'S "Soca Warriors" will have a new opponent for their warm-up match at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya, Tunapuna, on Wednesday.

The Soca Warriors will now play Digicel Caribbean championships Haiti in a friendly international instead of Panama.

The Panamanians have experienced difficulty with travel arrangements and have decided to pull out.

Panama were expected to arrive here today for the match, but late on Senior Team was scheduled to arrive on Monday but on Saturday Panama Football Federation president Ariel Alvarado regrettably informed the Trinidad and Toobago Football Federation only half his team secured reservations to arrive here tomorrow.

"I must apologise for circumstances beyond our control at this time," Alvarado stated.

"The airline did not respect the reservation that we requested and we can only come to Trinidad with 15 members before Wednesday. We regret this and we do hope that another game can be played at another date."

Immediately another opponent was sought and through special advisor Jack Austin Warner the TTFF received a guarantee from the Haitian Football Federation.

The Haitians are expected here tomorrow ahead of Wednesday's game which is timed to kick off at 6 pm.

Both teams meet again on August 10, this time Port-au-Prince.

Meanwhile Soca Warriors captain Aurtis Whitley who suffered a hamstring strain, said he is hoping to make a full recovery by the time his team play Cuba on August 20.

Defender Cyd Gray, who wore the captain's armband in the 2-0 win over Netherlands Antilles, is also inching his way back to full fitness.

The Soca Warriors contingent also includes Marvin Phillip, Cleon John, Makan Hislop, Gyasi Joyce, Keyeno Thomas, Radanfah Abu Bakr, Aklie Edwards, Khaleem Hyland, Densill Theobald, Kerry Baptiste, Anthony Wolfe, Cornell Glen, Andre Toussaint. Kevaughn Connell and Keon Daniel.

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[eddy15]

A win on Trini soil would be a very nice treat!

[tich76]

There is something I dont like with this game.

Messieurs de la federation il faut savoir programmer. A work schedule has already been planned by the national coach eloi. We should respect this schedule. Yes it will be good for our pride to win T&T in their soil, yes it will be a good opponent to prepare our next official game against suriname, yes we will get money for that match, but dot forget we already plan a game against TT on the 10th of august.

coach Eloi was complaining about our lake of time for physical preparation because to prepare the team physically not only for the match against suriname but all the up coming qualification matches, you need time to workout. Eloi was saying that one month was the ideal time to prepare the team. But because of the match of the 10th they will have only 15 days of preparation in USA (with all the concentration, muscular euipement, football euipement like mobile goal .... ) and 10 other days in haiti after that with the minimum we have to prepare the team and all the disturbence for the players.

Now with that match we will lose at least 3 more days of preparation with an accumulated fatigue for the players.

How do we think in this country? How do we plan? this is exactly what others will raise. In Hait we live in chaotic habit. it's a Day by day routine where everybody moving their "pions".

I hope, and REALLY hope that the people in the FHF made that move because of financial reason even when they know that this game will affect negatively our preparation.

Wish the best to our NT and Grenadiers "ALASSO"

[acivil11]

I understand your point Tich and I think that you are right. BUT, this game will be a great way to TEST our team. We need the physical preparation as you mention but this game will point out our weakness and Eloi will get to try our players and try to find the perfect team for our next games. Playing TT is a lot different than playing those local clubs in the US. TT is our #1 challenge in the region and we know that we might be facing them in the future. Therefore, it is a good thing to play them as much as possible that we can learn their weakness as well. again, you are right that we will be missing a few days of preparation but I think that this game will worth it. In addition, we could BENEFIT from the FINANCIAL deal.

[jayjensen2]

Yeah... you're right Acivil11.

[tich76]

acivil11,

Dont forget that we will play them august 10th too. So we will play them july 30th and 10th (two games). I know we need to play against big teams to see our weakness and correct them. But we also have a big physical problem and even if you put in place a correct tactic and play schematic if the physical is not there the players will not be able to defend or go forward quickly to the opponent goal. We are not preparing only for Suriname but for all the qualifying games. And you can acheive your preparation with a well scheduled plan.

You cannot break that plan otherwise you will lose your strenght when you need it most. Remember last gold cup. We had the same players, the same coach that make us win the Digicel cup but the lack of physical preparation make us lose in the first round.

Anyway, i hope it will be a good move. Maybe if we lose our players will be more motivated for the next match on august 10th and will keep that momentum for the match against suriname.