At­tack­er Run­dell Win­ches­ter of Mal­tese First Di­vi­sion out­fit Marsaskala FC has earned a call-up to the T&T squad af­ter nine years, while mid­field­er An­dre Ram­per­sad (Hal­i­fax Wan­der­ers) al­so sealed a place on coach An­gus Eve's ros­ter for the com­ing CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League match­es against the Ba­hamas and Nicaragua.

Both have come in for speedy strik­er Levi Gar­cia and cen­tral mid­field­er Kevin Moli­no ruled out due to in­juries.

Ram­per­sad was called for the T&T team in 2021 but trav­el re­stric­tions in Cana­da due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic pre­vent­ed him from join­ing the squad. How­ev­er, Win­ches­ter last wore the T&T shirt dur­ing a 2014 in­ter­na­tion­al clash with Ar­genti­na.

The So­ca War­riors will take on the Ba­hamas on Fri­day in Ba­hamas and then Nicaragua on Mon­day at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um in Ba­co­let, To­ba­go, need­ing to win both match­es to be pro­mot­ed to Group A in the CON­CA­CAF. They are on nine points in Group C in sec­ond po­si­tion while the Nicaraguans who de­feat­ed them 2-0 in Man­agua back in June last year, head the group with 10 points.

Nicaragua will face St Vin­cent and the Grenadines on Fri­day be­fore meet­ing the War­riors in a match that will be con­sid­ered a do-or-die.

Eve's men, who are ranked 104th on the FI­FA rank­ings, got two pos­i­tive re­sults against 64th-ranked re­gion­al ri­val Ja­maica, cour­tesy of a 1-0 win in the open­ing game on March 11, and a goal­less tie on March 14 that earned them a 1-0 win of the two-match se­ries.

The squad as­sem­bled be­tween Sun­day evening and to­day for a train­ing camp in Bo­ca Ra­ton, Fort Laud­erdale in Flori­da, USA, which is the same lo­ca­tion used for the pre-Gold Cup qual­i­fy­ing train­ing camp in 2021.

They are ex­pect­ed to ar­rive in Nas­sau, Ba­hamas on Thurs­day, but yes­ter­day de­fend­er FF Jaro in Fin­land said they will be try­ing to build on the per­for­mances against Ja­maica re­cent­ly.

"I think it is re­al­ly im­por­tant for us, the guys are in good spir­its and it's go­ing to be good that we have a cou­ple of days to work on what we need to get done for those two all-im­por­tant games, and then go in­to them the way we did the last four games," Moses said.

"It was nice to see the de­fend­ers keep a clean sheet against Ja­maica, so that is some­thing we have to build on. They were good com­pet­i­tive games and it's good that some of the play­ers from there are in the squad now.

"For us who were look­ing on, we know what our ex­pec­ta­tions are for the next two games."

Fri­day's en­counter will be broad­cast live on Flow Sports at 4 pm.

Tick­ets for the match Fri­day are on sale at $150 (cov­ered) and $100 (un­cov­ered). Tick­ets are avail­able at Caribbean Cor­ner Stores (Buc­coo), Lust Restau­rant and Bar (Low­lands Mall), Her­itage Sports (Sang­sters Hill, Scar­bor­ough), Forbes Vi­sion­ary Con­cepts (Ply­mouth), Jade Mon­key Bar (Crown Point) and on­line at is­landet­ick­ets.com.

T&T SQUAD

Strik­ers:

Mar­cus Joseph (Mo­hammedan Sport­ing Club), Run­dell Win­ches­ter (Marsaskala FC).

Mid­field­ers:

An­dre Ram­per­sad (Hal­i­fax Wan­der­ers), Daniel Phillips (St John­stone FC), Jo­evin Jones (Un­at­tached), John-Paul Rochford (AC Port of Spain), Jo­mal Williams (Once De­porti­vo De Ahuacha­pan), Ryan Telfer (Mi­a­mi FC), Kaile Au­vray (Sport­ing Kansas), Noah Pow­der (un­at­tached), Re­on Moore (De­fence Force), Michel Poon-Angeron (AC Port of Spain), Mo­lik Khan (Min­neso­ta Unit­ed).

De­fend­ers:

Alvin Jones (Un­at­tached), Aubrey David (So­ciedad De­porti­va Au­cas), Justin Gar­cia (De­fence Force), Ka­reem Moses (FF Jaro), Ke­ston Julien (Sher­iff FC), Le­land Archer (Charleston Bat­tery), Tris­ton Hodge (Harts­ford Ath­let­ics), Shan­non Gomez (San An­to­nio FC).

Goal­keep­ers:

Den­zil Smith (W Con­nec­tion), Mar­vin Phillip (AC Port of Spain), Nick­las Fren­derup (Ran­heim IL).