Mid­field­er An­dre Ram­per­sad be­lieves the T&T play­ers will be fo­cused on the two mas­sive match­es ahead against the Unit­ed States, start­ing to­mor­row in the quar­ter­fi­nals of the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League 'A' Di­vi­sion.

The War­riors touched down in the US on the week­end to face the home team for the first time since their dis­as­trous 6-0 loss at this year's CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup, which pre­vent­ed the lo­cal team from ad­vanc­ing to the sec­ond round of the tour­na­ment.

Ram­per­sad, a re­li­able de­fen­sive mid­field­er for Cana­di­an team Hal­i­fax Wan­der­ers, said the War­riors ex­pect­ed­ly re­ceived a 'bap­tism of fire' then but the coach­ing staff would have done its home­work to have them bet­ter pre­pared this time around.

Coach An­gus Eve said in a pre­vi­ous in­ter­view he is ex­pect­ing the US team to try to de­mor­alise his charges in the com­fort of their own home, un­der their con­di­tions. But though the odds may be in favour of the US side, Ram­per­sad said his team will not on­ly be more pre­pared, but the play­ers will be more con­fi­dent.

T&T re­ceived a morale-boost­ing 2-1 win over the US in the FI­FA World Cup Qual­i­fiers 2017 at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va, which pre­vent­ed the Amer­i­cans from qual­i­fy­ing, how­ev­er, Ram­per­sad, hav­ing moved to the Cana­di­an team from FC San­ta Rosa in the lo­cal T&T Su­per League, said the play­ers will be fo­cused for the com­ing en­coun­ters.

"It's def­i­nite­ly a bless­ing to come to this place for such a big game, where we can do so many things. We can come away with the win, we can be all con­fi­dent. It's 90 min­utes by 90 min­utes and we will see what hap­pens af­ter that. I think the boys just need to stay fo­cused," Ram­per­sad said.

"It's a mas­sive game for the coun­try, mas­sive game for the boys, I think we need to grasp the op­por­tu­ni­ty. It's all about con­fi­dence. One thing I al­ways say to the guys is to be­lieve in your­self, be­lieve in your tal­ent, and be­lieve in your team­mates, and it showed over the pe­ri­od of the Na­tions League games.

"Up to this point, when you look at the first game against Cu­ra­cao, we didn't re­al­ly know each oth­er that much, and com­ing in­to the sec­ond game we went to El Sal­vador and came away with three points, which was mas­sive and it lift­ed the con­fi­dence of the boys, once again be­liev­ing in each oth­er.

"In the home game against Guatemala, we went down 2-1 and once again the char­ac­ter showed where we be­lieved in our­selves," Ram­per­sad ex­plained.

Af­ter to­mor­row's match, the War­riors will face the USA for a sec­ond time on Mon­day (No­vem­ber 20) at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, for the right to ad­vance to the semi­fi­nals to be de­ter­mined by the re­sults of the two match­es.