T&T Un­der-15 coach Stu­art Charles Fevri­er has picked a 20-man squad to rep­re­sent the coun­try at the T&TFA Youth In­vi­ta­tion­al Tour­na­ment, which kicks off to­mor­row with a dou­ble-head­er at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va.

Fevri­er has been over­see­ing the prepa­ra­tion of this team for the past two years with reg­u­lar ses­sions and train­ing camps. He will now have the op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­pete against in­ter­na­tion­al op­po­si­tion, in­clud­ing Mex­i­co, Venezuela and Pana­ma, for the first time on home soil.

The com­pe­ti­tion will see in­ter­na­tion­al un­der-15 teams on show for the first time since the CFU Youth Cup was held here in 2008.

“It’s a great op­por­tu­ni­ty for the play­ers to play against some qual­i­ty in­ter­na­tion­al teams such as Mex­i­co, Venezuela and Pana­ma. We have been play­ing a lot of prac­tice games and then we found our­selves play­ing against teams of high­er age groups, such as the se­nior lev­el, in or­der to in­ten­si­fy what we were do­ing. I be­lieve the boys are fo­cused and ready to give a good show­ing in this com­pe­ti­tion," Fevri­er told Guardian Me­dia.

“This is a de­vel­op­men­tal tour­na­ment, sim­i­lar to what will take place in Flori­da next month and it is im­por­tant that we un­der­stand this and take the nec­es­sary ap­proach. Of course, we are aim­ing to com­pete and to put on a good dis­play of foot­ball.”

Team cap­tain Ja­heim Mar­shall is al­so ea­ger to take the pitch in front of the home fans.

“It is a great ho­n­our for all of us in the team to play in front of the home crowd. We have been work­ing re­al­ly hard for a long time and now we want to put this in­to match­es and demon­strate what we have done in train­ing. I think these games will go a long way in show­ing us what lev­el we are at and pre­pare us for the Con­ca­caf cham­pi­onship.”

Strik­er Ab­dul-Qudoos Hy­po­lite is promis­ing to­tal foot­ball.

“We are ex­cit­ed but at the same time pa­tient be­cause we know what our am­bi­tions are. These teams all have a rich his­to­ry and are strong in the re­gion. For us, it is a great op­por­tu­ni­ty to be able to go out there and show what we are ca­pa­ble of. We’ll take each game se­ri­ous­ly and try our best to put on a game of to­tal foot­ball and try to achieve the best pos­si­ble re­sults on the day,” he said.

T&T faces Pana­ma from 7.15 pm to­mor­row, with Mex­i­co and Venezuela squar­ing off in the first game at 5.15 pm.

Mean­while, the T&T Un­der 17 Girls' team will al­so be in ac­tion. They will take on Pana­ma’s U-17 team Fri­day at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um and again on Sun­day at Ato Boldon. Pana­ma has been a late re­place­ment for Cu­ra­cao’s U-17 Girls who en­coun­tered chal­lenges in se­cur­ing air trav­el.

T&T U-15s Team

Kanye Lazarus, GK, Po­lice FC

Chris­t­ian Bai­ley, Cale­do­nia AIA

Dawn St Rose,W Con­nec­tion

Jaron Pas­call,Po­lice FC

Tyrik Trot­man, Cen­tral FC

Ja­heim Mar­shall, Po­lice FC

Ab­dul-Qud­doos Hy­po­lite, Po­lice FC

Jesse Mo­lik Khan, W Con­nec­tion

Ja-Shawn Thomas, W Con­nec­tion

Nathaniel James, W Con­nec­tion

Josi­ah Wil­son, W Con­nec­tion

Tris­tan Stafford, Po­lice FC

Kas­sidy David­son, W Con­nec­tion

Jovonn Gomez, Po­lice FC

Dan­taye Gilbert, W Con­nec­tion

Caleb Bor­neo, Colum­bus Crew

Ja­heim Faustin, San Juan Jabloteh

Tris­tan Ed­wards (GK), San­ta Cruz Unit­ed Acad­e­my

Isa­iah Thomp­son, Point Fortin Civic Cen­tre

Jared Ed­mond (GK), Play­ers Evo­lu­tion Acad­e­my

Head Coach – Stu­art Charles Fevri­er