Shaun Fuentes

Un­der­dogs Be­lize se­cured their biggest ever foot­ball achieve­ment last week when they qual­i­fied for the 2013 Con­ca­caf Gold Cup.

Be­lize host­ed T&T in a friend­ly in 2010 and the Rus­sell Lat­apy-coached team was heav­i­ly crit­i­cised af­ter be­ing held to a 0-0 draw. How­ev­er, the Cen­tral Amer­i­cans have been im­prov­ing and qual­i­fied for the semi­fi­nals of the Cen­tral Amer­i­can tour­na­ment in Cos­ta Ri­ca. They were nar­row­ly beat­en 1-0 by El Sal­vador in the third place play­off last Sun­day.

Be­lize, along with Cen­tral Amer­i­can cham­pi­ons Cos­ta Ri­ca, run­ners-up Hon­duras, El Sal­vador and Mex­i­co will join T&T at Ju­ly's Gold Cup in the USA along­side the host na­tion, Cana­da, Haiti, Cu­ba and Mar­tinique.

T&T co-head coach­es Hut­son Charles and Ja­maal Shabazz were in Cos­ta Ri­ca last week to view games in­volv­ing T&T's pos­si­ble Gold Cup op­po­nents.

"We had the op­por­tu­ni­ty to see some of the teams we may be com­ing up against and it proved to be a worth­while trip," Shabazz said.

"We were able to see styles of play. We've met these teams be­fore, but it's good to stay abreast of what they are do­ing. They will al­so be look­ing at what we do be­fore the Gold Cup," Shabazz said.

The Gold Cup will be played from Ju­ly 7-28.

Ed­wards wants col­lec­tive ef­fort

Ip­swich Town cap­tain Car­los Ed­wards has stressed on the need for a big­ger col­lec­tive ef­fort to take this coun­try's foot­ball for­ward.

He said he was hope­ful that the 2006 World Cup bonus is­sue in­volv­ing 13 play­ers and the T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion would come to an end soon with­out foot­ball hav­ing to suf­fer.

"All hands have got to be on deck for us to re­solve the is­sues at the mo­ment. The cur­rent play­ers need to con­cen­trate on their job, which is play­ing foot­ball. At the same time, they have to be re­ward­ed for their ef­forts, win lose or draw but most­ly so when they win," said Ed­wards. Ed­wards said he wants to see the play­ers' bonus is­sue re­solved. "I think it should be re­solved soon and not be pro­longed for such a long time. It's just pulling us down more than it...Some have to be look­ing at each oth­er and point­ing fin­gers and that's the last thing we want. We want to be unit­ed as a team and coun­try and maybe pick up from where we were in 2006. It's nev­er too late to do that be­cause it would be mean we are pro­gress­ing," Ed­wards end­ed.

Bentick bent on suc­cess

De­fend­er Uri­ah Bentick is hop­ing his ear­ly ex­ploits with the Philadel­phia Union will se­cure a deal with the Amer­i­can Ma­jor League Soc­cer club.

Bentick, a for­mer T&T Un­der-17 and Un­der-20 play­er, was draft­ed by the club last month af­ter an im­pres­sive run in the US Col­lege League.

"My am­bi­tions are to get signed and play my role to help the team ac­com­plish its goals. Then I want to fo­cus on mak­ing the T&T se­nior team," Bentick said.

Hope­ful­ly, Bentick will se­cure a deal and join T&T's Keon Daniel and Damani Richards as full mem­bers of the Union team.

Ken­wyne bat­tles on at Stoke City

Ken­wyne Jones is pre­pared to fight it out at Stoke City and com­pete strong­ly for the num­ber-one for­ward place in Tony Pulis' start team. "It's been top­sy-turvy. I've been out and out and just in for a minute and then out again. It's about tak­ing your chance when you're in there and I think I've done that. Hope­ful­ly, there can be a brighter end to the sea­son for me," Jones said on Tues­day.

The for­mer Sun­der­land play­er be­lieves that he can con­tin­ue to stake a claim in the Pre­mier­ship.

"I'm still giv­ing it every­thing, work­ing hard and try­ing to help the team when the chance is pre­sent­ed for me."

Shaun Fuentes is the me­dia of­fi­cer for the TTFF/So­ca War­riors�Fol­low him on Twit­ter @ Pro­Look2006