National coach Angus Eve is treating Friday's Concacaf Nations League 'A' match against Guatemala at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain from 9 pm, as a final.
The Soca Warriors are at the top of the standings in Group A with six points after two matches to date while the Guatemalans are in the third position on four, due to an inferior goal difference to second-place Panama.
However, Eve expressed mixed emotions at yesterday's pre-match press conference at the game venue, saying several of his players are nursing injuries and are unable to play tonight.
He said: "Well, it's a little bit of mixed feelings because we lost some important players leading up to the match. You know, some of these number nines and those in that particular position, but other than that everybody's fit and ready to go. And we want to put a good show forward for our country."
Eve's 23-man squad includes strikers Tyrone Charles, Real Gill, and Nathaniel James who scored the lone goal against Curacao in the team's opening match at the same venue. And defender Alvin Jones, who had been left out of the two first matches, has now come in for Shannon Gomez, again due to injury.
There were also injuries for goalkeeper Nicklas Frenderup, Levi Garcia, and Keston Julien.
A win for the T&T team will put them a game away from a quarterfinal spot, provided Panama, wins its match against Curacao away. T&T's final match will be against the Curacaoans for a second time on October 17 at the Ergilio Hato Stadium.
The national men's team will be hoping to capitalise on their performances so far, despite its style of football.
"As I said, time and time again, nobody expected us to be here. And I think the boys have done tremendously well so far to get the victories. We're going to go into the match very positively today to try to seal the deal. You know, the first goal for us was to qualify and stay in the Nations League A, as well as maintain our ranking, so we're close to doing that and anything else will be a bonus in this rebuilding stage," Eve explained.
"We see this game that we're going to play as a final. We see it as a game that we need to win or not lose. We haven't been here for a while, and, you know, doing what we did in the first matches, gives us a little bit of freedom to express ourselves a little bit more, so yes, we got to take the game very seriously. We're in a positive frame of mind and the boys want to do well for the country. So going into the game, we go in with no fear."
Guatemala coach Luis Fernando Tena said he is expecting the T&T team to play defensive football, similar to how they played against Curacao.
He said, in his team's press conference following, that the Soca Warriors will obviously be favourites playing at home, however, there can always be surprises.
The Guatemalan coach added that he is confident that his team can come away with the victory based on their style of football.
T&T TEAM:
GOALKEEPERS: Christopher Biggette, Jabari St Hillaire, Denzil Smith
DEFENDERS: Aubrey David, Kareem Moses, Jesse Williams, Justin Garcia, Ross Russell Jr, Alvin Jones
MIDFIELDERS: Kaile Auvray, Neveal Hackshaw, Andre Rampersad, Michel Poon-Angeron, Andre Raymond, Duane Muckette, Kristian Lee-Him, Kevon Goddard, Noah Powder
FORWARDS: Nathaniel James, Real Gill, Ryan Telfer, Reon Moore, Tyrone Charles
GROUP A
Pos*Team*MP*W*D*L*Gf*Ga*GD*Pts
1*T&T*2*2*0*0*4*2*2*6
2*Panama*2*1*1*0*4*1*3*4
3*Guatemala*2*1*1*0*3*1*2*4
4*Martinique*2*1*0*1*1*3*-2*3
5*Curacao*2*0*0*2*0*2*-2*0
6*El Salvador*2*0*0*2*2*5*-3*0