Na­tion­al Se­nior Team head coach Tom Saint­fi­et wel­comed as­sis­tant coach Rus­sell Lat­apy in­to his tech­ni­cal staff and squad at Sun­day's train­ing ses­sion at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo as prepa­ra­tions con­tin­ued for the up­com­ing CFU Gold Cup play-off match­es against Suri­name on Wednes­day and Haiti on Sun­day at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Cou­va.

Lat­apy was named as as­sis­tant coach to Saint­fi­et last month and joined the team for the first time on the week­end af­ter re­turn­ing from Por­tu­gal on the week­end.

"The last two or three weeks I have al­ready had a lot of con­tact with Rus­sell. To­day, when he came in­to the ho­tel we took some time, we came to­geth­er to train­ing in the car and we spoke a lit­tle bit about my phi­los­o­phy, about his ideas and about our way to work to­geth­er. I am very hap­py that Rus­sell is here," Saint­fi­et said.

"Rus­sell is a foot­ball man, he knows the coun­try and he has achieved a lot as a play­er on top lev­el in Eu­rope and on the na­tion­al team. He has ex­pe­ri­ence al­so as a coach so I am very hap­py to add him to the tech­ni­cal team just like every­body else who is there and to­geth­er we will form a stronger squad," he said.

Saint­fi­et al­so spoke on the top­ic of Lat­apy's in­volve­ment with the youth pro­gramme and how their ser­vices can be com­bined to ben­e­fit both.

"I think that it's go­ing hand in hand. I am a coach who proved in oth­er coun­tries not to be afraid to se­lect 16 and 17 year old play­ers to make their de­but in the na­tion­al team be­cause on the end when we de­vel­op play­ers, it's to get them to the na­tion­al team. In my own coun­try Lukaku was 16-years-old when he played with the na­tion­al team. So if you are a tal­ent­ed play­er, maybe not yet dis­cov­ered by lo­cal teams, but you are a good tal­ent, you can al­so have a chance in the se­nior na­tion­al team and I will work very close­ly with Rus­sell and the oth­er na­tion­al youth coach (Bri­an) Williams to help the de­vel­op­ment of foot­ball and to bring young play­ers very close to the na­tion­al team," the Bel­gian-born coach added.

Mean­while, Lat­apy ear­li­er stat­ed that he was look­ing for­ward to mak­ing his con­tri­bu­tion as se­nior team as­sis­tant coach.

"Again, it's an op­por­tu­ni­ty where I've been called again to as­sist and this is ex­act­ly what I will do. I've rep­re­sent­ed Trinidad and To­ba­go for so many years, and if I am be­ing called up­on again es­pe­cial­ly in my new role as staff coach for the as­so­ci­a­tion, to be an as­sis­tant coach for the se­nior team, I will go in and do my best. The fo­cus has to be on the new coach and his ideas and his philoso­phies and we need the play­ers to pull to­geth­er just like the na­tion and we need to come to­geth­er to do the best so that we can move for­ward and give the team the best pos­si­ble chance," Lat­apy ex­plained.

Saint­fi­et, added, that he will look very close­ly at play­ers' at­ti­tude when it comes to team se­lec­tion.

"I will al­ways con­sid­er every play­er with a Trinidad and To­ba­go pass­port, but I will al­ways take in­to ac­count what is the at­ti­tude of a play­er so play­ers who shows a neg­a­tive at­ti­tude, they have to be dou­ble as good and prove that they have the right at­ti­tude to come back be­cause we don't win foot­ball match­es with qual­i­ty but we win foot­ball match­es with com­mit­ment at this lev­el," Saint­fi­et point­ed out.

"I have to form a team that is ready to fight for their coun­try and I am very hap­py to do that."

In an­nounc­ing his 20-man squad on Sun­day he in­clud­ed Eng­lish-based mid­field­er An­dre Bou­caud.

He re­vealed that his de­ci­sion to omit ex­pe­ri­ence de­fend­er Daneil Cyrus and winger/for­ward Jo­mal Williams from the 20-man squad was due to both play­ers ar­riv­ing to a res­i­den­tial camp at Cara Suites Ho­tel, La Ro­main, San Fer­nan­do, on New Years day more than an hour af­ter the sched­uled ar­rival time and that the play­ers smelt of al­co­hol,.

In re­sponse to US-based play­er Jo­evin Jones, who was al­so in the ini­tial 20-man squad, Saint­fi­et ex­plained that he too was al­so re­leased af­ter he failed to re­port to camp and there places have been giv­en to Trevin Cae­sar, Cur­tis Gon­za­les and Akeem Roach.

Tick­ets for the up­com­ing Gold Cup play-off match­es are now on sale at all Lot­to Lo­ca­tions na­tion­wide. There are three in one sea­son tick­ets for the three match­es cost­ing $$100 for adults and $45 for chil­dren. Sin­gle match tick­ets cost $50 for Adults and $20 for chil­dren. TTFA Sea­son Pass hold­ers can ac­cess the games at no ad­di­tion­al cost. Those TTFA Sea­son Pass­es which in­cludes ac­cess to the World Cup qual­i­fiers al­so, are avail­able at First Cit­i­zen's Banks na­tion­wide.

T&T 20-man squad

Adri­an Fon­cette, Glen­roy Samuel, Car­los Ed­wards (cap­tain), Cur­tis Gon­za­les, Car­lyle Mitchell, Radan­fah Abu Bakr, Mau­rice Ford, Hugh­tun Hec­tor, Alvin Jones, Ke­van George, Nathan Lewis, Aikim An­drews, Hashim Ar­cia, Ty­rone Charles, Cor­nell Glen, Shah­don Win­ches­ter, Akeem Roach, Trevin Cae­sar, Aubrey David and An­dre Bou­caud.