Matches against Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been lined up as the first real tests for new national football coach Dwight Yorke and his staff ahead of the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup and also the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers next year.
President of the T&T Football Association (TTFA) Kieron Edwards is intent on delivering on his promise of an out-of-window international friendly match for Yorke as efforts to secure one for the last window (November 11-19) did not materialise.
Yorke on his first assignment as Soca Warriors coach conducted a live-in camp during the November 11-19 window for local players mainly and several international players who were able to attend. However, with no international friendly match lined up, he embraced the opportunity to engage in a “get-to-know-you” session between players and staff members. The team took on T&T Premier Football League campaigner Defence Force in a practice match and won 1-0, last Monday.
After a week of constant negotiations, Edwards is close to confirming the matches which he said will be played abroad.
“We’re looking at Saudi Arabia and Qatar for those games in December. We’re in the final stages with Saudi Arabia, so hopefully they could confirm and we’re now starting discussions with Qatar to play those two games down on that side. If Saudi Arabia confirms in December then both games will be in December,” Edwards explained.
The matches are expected to be part of a larger initiative to ensure the entire country and the wider diaspora are on board for the T&T team when it contests the Concacaf Gold Cup Qualifiers in two matches against Cuba in March next year, and later in the team’s third World Cup qualifier against St Kitts & Nevis at home in June.
“So the team had its first camp, we had the camp in the last window and we’re planning a few out-of-window games. The first game home would be that match window for the Gold Cup prelims, so we’re looking at different ways to push.
“We’re talking right now with our supplier Capeli, our sponsors for jerseys and uniforms to make a collector’s item jersey because a lot of people have been complaining about the unavailability of these kits for some years and it’s something that we’re going to make a right, to make sure that every fan who needs a T&T jersey, whether in T&T or the diaspora will have one.
“So we want to do a collector’s item jersey and we’re having discussions with them right now to do it. We’re coining the phrase ‘One TTFA, One Nation, One Team, Journey 2026’ so we’re going to have a collector’s item jersey for that and we’re going to start pre-ordering in January to have them ready for the next match day.
“We want to fill that stadium against Cuba in March, Dwight Yorke’s first game home and build that momentum for the World Cup qualifiers in June against St Kitts & Nevis. We want to fill the stadium, and we want everyone in a T&T jersey. This would also help the process and what we do to ensure that there are camps and what not.”
The local football boss noted further: “Persons are longing to be part of it, they’re energised. I would have seen persons energised by the unveiling of coach Yorke, from the sessions he would have done, and you can see the light in the eyes of the players with him as coach.”
In recent home and away matches against Cuba under then-coach Derek King, the Soca Warriors won 3-1 and drew 2-2 in the Concacaf Nations League.
In the World Cup qualifiers, T&T are second in Group B behind Costa Rica on four points from a 2-2 tie with Grenada and a 7-1 thrashing of the Bahamas. Yorke told the media, he was not studying the St Kitts & Nevis match right now as his focus was to get his players on the same page ahead of the qualifiers.
