The top three teams to rep­re­sent T&T at the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Shield and the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Cup in Au­gust have fi­nal­ly been de­cid­ed in the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League, with still a fi­nal round of match­es to go.

At Sun­day's match­es, the top two teams that will de­ter­mine who goes to the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Shield (top two teams) and the third-place team that will play in the CON­CA­CAF Caribbean Cup.

De­fence Force who de­feat­ed Club San­do FC 2-0 at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um in Mara­bel­la, has tak­en one of the spots, along with AC Port of Spain and Club San­do.

Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, who were al­so vic­to­ri­ous 4-1 over Cunu­pia FC at the St James Bar­racks on Thurs­day, can­not make the cut as they can on­ly reach 40 points with a vic­to­ry in their fi­nal match on Sun­day.

On Thurs­day at the Mara­bel­la fa­cil­i­ty, the Army Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion team moved to the top of the stand­ings with 43 points but will be keep­ing a close eye on the AC Port of Spain men who could have eas­i­ly snatched back the top spot in their late en­counter with Cen­tral FC sched­uled last night at the Phase II La Hor­quet­ta Recre­ation Ground in La Hor­quet­ta.

Dwight Quin­tero, the pro­lif­ic De­fence Force marks­man got the open­ing goal in the 35th minute for the 1-0 ad­van­tage while Hashim Ar­cia sealed the win in the 90+2 min­utes.

The re­sult means even if they lose against W Con­nec­tion at the Man­ny Ramjohn Sta­di­um, they will still be among the top three teams.

Rangers, af­ter a dis­as­trous 5-2 loss to Po­lice FC ear­li­er this week, pro­duced a com­mand­ing per­for­mance yes­ter­day that saw them pre­vail 4-1 in the open­ing match of a dou­ble­head­er at Long Cir­cu­lar Road in St James.

Nathaniel Gar­cia made their in­ten­tions known as ear­ly as the 29th minute, when he latched on to a ball that was head­ed as far as the top of the Cunu­pia area, from an ear­li­er Rangers cor­ner, and he hit it hard in­to the top right cor­ner for the 1-0 ad­van­tage.

Ju­nior As­soon, the three-goal scor­er in the Rangers' match at the week­end, then gave them a two-goal cush­ion in the 31st.

How­ev­er, the Cunu­pia men pulled a goal back in the 35th minute, af­ter a de­fen­sive blun­der pre­sent­ed Luke Bou­caud with an emp­ty net to put the ball in­to.

With that item, the teams went to the half-time in­ter­val with the score at 2-1, but there was no com­ing back for the cen­tral men there­after though. Daniel David re­stored the two-goal ad­van­tage in the 46th minute and Tyrik Lee, the St Bene­dict's Col­lege dan­ger­man, then sealed the win 4-1 with his goal in the 90+3-minute.

RE­SULTS

De­fence Force 2 (Dwight Quin­tero 35th, Hashim Ar­cia 90+2) vs Club San­do 0

Rangers 4 (Nathaniel Gar­cia 29th, Ju­nior As­soon 31st, Daniel David 46th, Tyrik Lee 90+3) vs Cunu­pia FC 1 (Luke Bou­caud 35th)

W Con­nec­tion 2 (Neil Ben­jamin 13th, Jah­malee Bar­clay 90+4) vs Jabloteh 2 (Kevon Wood­ley 45+1, 59th)

STAND­INGS

TEAM*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS

1*De­fence Force*17*14*1*2*40*11*29*43

2*AC PoS*16*14*0*2*45*11*34*42

3*Club San­do*17*13*2*2*36*16*20*41

4*Rangers*16*12*1*3*49*19*30*37

5*Cen­tral FC*16*8*1*7*28*29*-1*25

6*Po­lice FC*15*7*1*7*27*26*1*22

7*W Con­nec­tion*17*5*4*8*17*23*-6*19

8*Point Fortin Civic*16*4*3*9*12*20*-8*15

9*Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*16*3*2*11*17*40*-23*11

10*Prison Ser­vice*16*3*2*11*9*39*-30*11

11*San Juan Jaboloteh*17*2*3*12*19*39*-20*9

12*Cunu­pia FC*17*2*2*13*10*36*-26*8