SPORTS DESK

gm­sports@guardian.co.tt

Trinidad and To­ba­go Eu­ro­pean-based duo Levi Gar­cia and Ka­reem Moses have both ad­mit­ted that they are pleased to have had the sub­ject of the head coach po­si­tion sort­ed out as they now look ahead to the busi­ness of prepa­ra­tions for up­com­ing CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League match­es in Sep­tem­ber.

Gar­cia, who is an un­cer­tain call-up for the next match against Cu­ra­cao at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um next week Thurs­day due to a thigh in­jury, is keen to put the re­cent CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup be­hind him and wants to fo­cus on the Na­tions League and 2026 World Cup qual­i­fy­ing.

T&T will be away to El Sal­vador on Sep­tem­ber 10.

“See­ing how im­por­tant these games are, it’s good to have every­one on the same page again. I am hap­py for the coach and his staff. Now we can fo­cus on the tasks ahead and we will con­tin­ue to work to­wards our tar­gets,” the 25-year-old Gar­cia said.

“Af­ter com­ing off a heart­break­ing Gold Cup this would be a per­fect chance to get go­ing again be­cause we know how im­por­tant it is to not on­ly get a good start in Sep­tem­ber but al­so to stay up in League A and set things up for the World Cup qual­i­fiers for 2026,” added the AEK Athens play­er who was among the goals last sea­son when his club won two ti­tles.

About his in­jury, the for­mer Shi­va Boys’ Hin­du Col­lege play­er and Siparia Spurs stand­out not­ed, “There is some un­cer­tain­ty on my avail­abil­i­ty as it’s a first-de­gree tear on his quadri­ceps but I’m work­ing on it in God’s name.”

Mean­time, Moses, who plies his trade with Finnish club FF Jaro, is al­so ea­ger to put the Gold Cup be­hind him.

He said, “It’s good that the FA has made a de­ci­sion on An­gus and the way for­ward for the team go­ing in­to these next two Na­tions League match­es. I think the FA made an ex­cel­lent choice in bring­ing him back as the head coach main­ly be­cause of his record and how he man­ages to mo­ti­vate the play­ers no mat­ter what the sit­u­a­tion is. He al­ways gets the best out of the team and I be­lieve it will be no dif­fer­ent in these up­com­ing Na­tions League match­es.”

Moses, 33, said, “Now we can fo­cus on prepa­ra­tions and putting our heads to­geth­er to try and get the best pos­si­ble re­sults. We know how much it hurt us with the two dis­ap­point­ing re­sults at the Gold Cup. But as the say­ing goes, in foot­ball you al­ways get sec­ond chances and this is what have to fo­cus on now—putting the Gold Cup be­hind us and try­ing to cap­i­talise on the op­por­tu­ni­ties ahead of us over these next few weeks.”

Last week Tues­day, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion (TTFA) an­nounced that it has grant­ed Se­nior Men’s Na­tion­al Team head coach An­gus Eve an ex­ten­sion on his con­tract un­til March 2024.

Eve led the team to pro­mo­tion to League A in the CON­CA­CAF Na­tions League which Robert Hadad, the chair­man of the FI­FA ap­point­ed Nor­mal­i­sa­tion Com­mit­tee stat­ed, “An­gus has come in­to the role bring­ing sta­bil­i­ty, qual­i­ty and be­lief to the team.”

Eve, a for­mer T&T cap­tain and stand­out and mid­field­er, will name his fi­nal squad over the com­ing days for the match vs Cu­ra­cao which kicks off at 6 pm at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um next week Thurs­day.

Tick­ets are priced at $50 for un­cov­ered, $100 for cov­ered and Kids 12 and un­der are free. Tick­ets are avail­able at Fan Zone out­lets and Fan Club (Trin­i­ty Mall) as well as on­line on is­landet­ick­ets.com. Tick­ets will al­so be avail­able for pur­chase at the venue on match day.