JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

T&T Beach Ballers open World Cup campaign against USA

by

Walter Alibey
4 days ago
20250311
FILE - Kevon 'Showtime' Woodley in action in beach soccer.

FILE - Kevon 'Showtime' Woodley in action in beach soccer.

T&T's all-time goal-scor­er Kevon "Show­time" Wood­ley will car­ry the hopes of an ear­ly T&T vic­to­ry from 6 pm Tues­day evening when the na­tion­al unit faces the USA in its open­ing match of the Con­ca­caf Men's Beach Soc­cer World Cup Qual­i­fiers at the Mal­colm Park Beach Soc­cer Fa­cil­i­ty in Nas­sau, Ba­hamas.

The T&T team had its first work­out at the game fa­cil­i­ty yes­ter­day, and they took the op­por­tu­ni­ty to pre­pare ahead of Tues­day's en­counter. The last time the teams met was in 2023 when the men in red, white and black lost 5-0.

Yes­ter­day, na­tion­al coach Cha­do Ap­poo said his charges are ex­cit­ed and ea­ger to be­gin but they are aware it would be a chal­lenge against the Con­ca­caf re­gion's top team.

"They're all ex­cit­ed and buzzing to get go­ing. We will have our first of­fi­cial train­ing ses­sion at the fa­cil­i­ty lat­er to­day (yes­ter­day) so we can't wait for that to fine-tune a cou­ple of things ahead of the game against USA, the open­er. Of course, it would be a chal­leng­ing game as the USA is one of the top-ranked teams in the re­gion, but those are the kind of games that we like to play," Ap­poo said.

T&T has al­ways emerged from the group stages but has strug­gled to get past the quar­ter­fi­nals. How­ev­er, with Con­ca­caf re­struc­tur­ing the for­mat of the tour­na­ment this year to fea­ture on­ly the top eight teams in the re­gion, Ap­poo's men can break that jinx by be­ing one of the top two teams to progress from the group which would put them straight in­to the semi­fi­nal round.

Ap­poo ex­plained the new for­mat has not made it less dif­fi­cult for his charges, though it is an eas­i­er route.

He be­lieves that the blend of play­ers in the team will in­crease the coun­try's chances of a top-two fin­ish.

"We have Kevon Wood­ley re­turn­ing to the squad, he missed the last cam­paign. He is our all-time lead­ing goalscor­er and of course, we know what qual­i­ty he brings and what he can add. We have some oth­er guys in like Zane Cok­er and the skip­per Jesse Bai­ley. And then we have a cou­ple of guys who have been around for some years now, who al­so made it in­to this fi­nal squad so the likes of Ka­iron Joseph and Jayson 'Mouse' Joseph who are ac­tive in the Pro League back home," Ap­poo said.

"Then we have oth­er guys who cur­rent­ly play in the Pro League back home, who over the years have shown their abil­i­ty to adapt to the sand ver­sion of the game, such as Jor­dan Ri­ley, Kevon Williams and so on."

T&T will next face Pana­ma Wednes­day at the same venue from 6 pm and will close off their cam­paign against the host na­tion on Thurs­day at 8 pm.

T&T TEAM

GOAL­KEEP­ERS: Zane Cok­er, Jabari Gray

FIXED/DE­FENCE: Jesse Bai­ley, Ka­iron Joseph, An­der­son Pe­ters

WING/MID: Shane Hospedales, Kevon Williams, Jor­dan Ri­ley, Jayson Joseph

PIV­OT/FOR­WARD: Kevon Wood­ley, Ka­reem Per­ry, Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored