It will be a difficult but much-needed challenge for this country's senior national footballers against Bolivia on Friday's at the Estadio Olimpico Patrio in Sucre.
The team leaves on Tuesday with the odds stacked against them, according to coach Angus Eve, following a training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Balmain, Couva yesterday, facing the scare of high altitude conditions, a full-strength Bolivian team as well as an inexperienced T&T outfit.
However, with no football for his players during the last three FIFA windows last year, coupled with no CFU or Caribbean Cup tournaments as it was in the past, the match is critical for not only the Nations League later this year but also the development of the sport which is severely lacking.
" Having not had any matches in the last three FIFA-match windows of last year, we thought it important that we try to play in every window in this year. We couldn't ask for better opposition. It may not be so ideal for us because we still can't have competitive football playing in Trinidad and mainly this team is a locally-based team that is going abroad, but this will be a very good experience for them to go into a game such as this.
We need a core-based team that will be training here, to give the guys that bit of experience. They need to play matches to gain experience. It's all well and good to have training but we don't have a local league playing at present.
If you look at the squad you will see a lot of unattached players, so we need to fill that void by getting matches for them to play to prepare them going into the Nations League," Eve explained.
He added: "Because we haven't played for a while, it's just general for us, but also because of the opposition and the atmosphere they will be playing in, that in itself will be a challenge for the guys so to have them play in that type of environment, will be an invaluable experience so that when we have to go to places like Mexico, we will be more prepared for that."
For many years T&T senior teams have played World Cup qualifiers and other matches in front of large crowds in high altitude conditions in Mexico. And only recently at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States last year, the men in red, white and black were verbally abused and criticised by crowds of Mexican supporters, when they held the Mexican team to a goalless draw in Arlington.
Friday's match which was initially carded for Santa Cruz in Bolivia was moved to Sucre, which is some 9,000 feet above sea level. The Bolivians will use the match as preparation for their World Cup against Venezuela and Chile soon after.
Eve said: "Bolivia have all their players. They've picked all their players because 90 percent of the team play in Bolivia and the few players that play in Brazil, play with Santos and Cruzeiro, their captain. One player plays for the same team as Joevin Jones and they are all back for this game because they have World Cup qualifying six days after so their full team is here for this game, so it will be a major test for our guys."