Trinidad and Tobago's Senior National Team head coach Stephen Hart yesterday announced a final 23-man squad to contest the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States starting next month.
Hart, along with his assistant coaches Hutson Charles and Derek King have assessed the players throughout the last few weeks over a period which included three international friendly matches. Hart had also been keeping abreast of the progress of the players in their respective overseas Leagues and the T&T Pro League.
The team's coaching staff included a few players who were not in the recent teams that faced Curacao and Jordan. Among them are Iceland-based forward Jonathan Glenn who was part of the Caribbean Cup Finals squad last November, Columbus Crew midfielder Kevan George, El Salvador-based defender Yohance Marshall,US-based forward Rundell Winchester and goalkeeper Adrian Foncette. Also making the cut is Under 20 striker Kadeem Corbin.
The other regulars making the 23-man squad include captain Kenwyne Jones, goalkeepers Marvin Phillip and Jan Michael Williams, Belgium-based duo Khaleem Hyland and Sheldon Bateau, ,Central FC duo Ataulla Guerra and Willis Plaza, San Jose Earthquakes forward Cordell Cato, Slovak-based winger Lester Peltier, English-based midfielder Andre Boucaud, Kazakhstan-based defender Aubrey David, Danish-based defender Radanfah Abu Bakr,Chicago Fire's Joevin Jones and W Connection defender Daneil Cyrus.
Hart has commenced a residential training camp with sessions at the Hasely Crawford Stadium and this will continue leading up to the team's departure for Fort Lauderdale on Sunday where another live-in camp will take place. T&T will also face Haiti in a closed door training match before flying to Chicago on July 7th for its Gold Cup opener against Guatemala on July 9th at Soldier Field.
"I have confidence in this group of players that we can put things right," Hart told TTFA Media.
"Once everyone buys into what we need to do collectively in order to achieve what we want then it will go well for us. We would need to focus on our task and support each other. We have the talent. We know that seventeen days may not be ideal, but if you add in the match period at the Gold cup, it's 25 plus days of us being together as a team and that is important especially looking beyond with the World Cup qualification coming up later in the year," Hart added.
Tournament rules allow changes to be made to the 23-man squad up until the day before the opening match while six players from outside of the 23-man squad (from the 35-man provisional roster) can join the team for the knockout phase.
"We'll be having players outside of the 23 players involved in this preparations this week and we will monitor their progress same time because the door will not be closed on anyone," Hart said.
T&T 23-man squad
GK (3) � Adrian Foncette (Police FC); Marvin Phillip (Point Fortin); Jan-Michael Williams (Central FC)
DF (7) � Radanfah Abu Bakr (HB Koge/Denmark); Sheldon Bateau (KV Mechelen/Belgium); Daneil Cyrus (Ha Noi T&T/Vietnam); Aubrey David (Shakhter Karagandy /Kazakhstan); Yohance Marshall (Juventud Independiente/El Salvador); Mekeil Williams (DirecTV W Connection); Khaleem Hyland (Racing Genk)
MF (7) � Joevin Jones (Chicago Fire/USA); Cordell Cato (San Jose Earthquakes/USA);Dwane James (North East Stars); Andre Boucaud (Dagenham & Redbridge/England); Lester Peltier (Slovan Bratislava/Slovakia), Kevon George (Columbus Crew); Keron Cummings (North East Stars)
F (6) - Jonathan Glenn (IBV/Iceland); Kenwyne Jones (Cardiff City/Wales); Atualla Guerra, Willis Plaza (Central FC); Rundell Winchester (Portland Timbers 2/USA), Kadeem Corbin (St Ann's Rangers).