T&T “So­ca War­riors” coach Dwight Yorke has named Spar­tak Moscow-based Levi Gar­cia among 17 over­seas-based play­ers in his 26-man squad for this coun­try’s Con­ca­caf Gold Cup home and away pre­lim­i­nary round se­ries against Cu­ba.

The Cubans will host the first leg on March 21 in Santi­go from 4 pm be­fore the So­ca War­riors re­turn home for the sec­ond leg at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va on March 24 at 7 pm.

In ad­di­tion to Gar­cia, who is yet to fea­ture un­der Yorke, the over­seas con­tin­gent se­lect­ed for the two match­es in­cludes goal­keep­er Den­zil Smith (AV Al­ta FC/USA), de­fend­ers Dar­nell Hospedales (Mon­tego Bay Utd/Ja­maica), Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham (Mon­tego Bay Unit­ed/Ja­maica), An­dre Ray­mond (Dun­fermline Ath­let­ic Scot­land), Alvin Jones (De­porti­vo Re­al So­ciedad/Hon­duras), Aubrey David (CSD Mu­nic­i­pal/Hon­duras); mid­field­ers Ste­fen Yeates (York Unit­ed/Cana­da), Daniel Phillips (Steve­nage/Eng­land), Ajani For­tune (At­lanta Unit­ed/USA), Nathaniel James (Port­land Heart of Pine/USA), Shan­non Gomez (San An­to­nio FC/USA), An­dre Ram­per­sad (HFX Wan­der­ers/Cana­da), Wayne Fred­er­ick II (Col­orado Rapids/USA), Tyrese Spicer (Toron­to FC/Cana­da), Dan­taye Gilbert/Hol­land), and Re­al Gill (Hun­stville City FC/USA).

Among the lo­cals named in the squad, De­fence Force strik­er and for­mer US Ma­jor League Soc­cer’s Kevin Moli­no, Po­lice FC’s Jo­evin Jones, goal­keep­ers Mar­vin Phillip (AC PoS) and Jabari St Hillaire (De­fence Force), Isa­iah Lee (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers), Kai­him Thomas (De­fence Force), Brent Sam (De­fence Force), and Isa­iah Gar­cia (De­fence Force).

How­ev­er, Isa­iah Lea­cock of De­fence Force, the lead­ing scor­er in the T&T Pre­mier League af­ter 11 match­es with 11 goals, one more than strike part­ner Moli­no, miss­es out be­cause of US Visas is­sues as the team is ex­pect­ed to leave for a four-day camp on Sun­day.

Last De­cem­ber, Yorke in his de­but match as head coach of the So­ca War­riors saw his team fall to a 3-1 loss while they were al­so beat­en 1-0 by host Ja­maica on Feb­ru­ary 6, be­fore both teams played to a 1-1 three days lat­er, al­so in Ja­maica.

The match­es in the pre­lim­i­nary round of the Gold Cup fea­ture the four 2024/25 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League quar­ter­fi­nal losers, the third and fourth-placed teams from the 2024/25 Na­tions League A cy­cle, the top two Na­tions League B run­ners-up, and the four Na­tions League play-in win­ners.

The pre­lim­i­nary re­sults were de­ter­mined via Con­ca­caf’s rank­ings of the 14 par­tic­i­pat­ing teams af­ter the con­clu­sion of Fi­fa’s No­vem­ber win­dow. The So­ca War­riors are ranked fifth, with Cos­ta Ri­ca, Ja­maica, Hon­duras, and Guatemala ahead of them. Cu­ba is ranked tenth.

The four 2024/25 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League semi­fi­nal­ists are Cana­da, Mex­i­co, Pana­ma and the US, who will go di­rect­ly in­to the 2025 Gold Cup group stage for the June 14-Ju­ly 6 tour­na­ment.

For the So­ca War­riors, their pre­lim­i­nary tie will be a re­match against a Cu­ba team they met twice in their 2024/25 Con­ca­caf Na­tions League A cam­paign. T&T played to a 2-2 draw against Cu­ba on Oc­to­ber 10 be­fore earn­ing a 3-1 win at the Dwight Yorke Sta­di­um, To­ba­go on Oc­to­ber 14 as they gained their place in Na­tions League A for an­oth­er cy­cle.

In the oth­er 2025 Con­ca­caf Gold Cup pre­lim­i­nary matchups Cos­ta Ri­ca faces Be­lize, Ja­maica meets St Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Hon­duras plays Bermu­da, Cu­ba, Guatemala bat­tles Guyana, Mar­tinique clash­es with Suri­name, and Nicaragua tan­gles with Guade­loupe.

So far, Haiti, El Sal­vador, Cu­ra­cao, USA, Pana­ma, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Cana­da, Mex­i­co and guest team Sau­di Ara­bia are the con­firmed teams in the main draw of this year’s Gold Cup which be­gins on June 14 and ends on Ju­ly 6.

Mex­i­co is the de­fend­ing cham­pi­on, hav­ing won its record-ex­tend­ing ninth ti­tle in 2023 af­ter de­feat­ing Pana­ma 1–0 in the fi­nal on Ju­ly 16 at SoFi Sta­di­um in In­gle­wood, Cal­i­for­nia.

T&T Gold Cup pre­lim­i­nary round squad

Goal­keep­ers: Mar­vin Phillip (AC PoS), Den­zil Smith (AV Al­ta FC/USA), Jabari St Hillaire (De­fence Force).

De­fend­ers: Dar­nell Hospedales (Mon­tego Bay Utd/Ja­maica), Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham (Mon­tego Bay Unit­ed/Ja­maica), Ja­mal Jack (Club San­do FC), An­dre Ray­mond (Dun­fermline Ath­let­ic Scot­land), Alvin Jones (De­porti­vo Re­al So­ciedad/Hon­duras), Aubrey David (CSD Mu­nic­i­pal/Hon­duras).

Mid­field­ers: Jo­evin Jones (Po­lice FC), Ste­fen Yeates (York Unit­ed/Cana­da), Daniel Phillips (Steve­nage/Eng­land), Natah­niel James (Port­land Heart of Pine/USA), Isa­iah Lee (La Hor­quet­ta Rangers), Shan­non Gomez (San An­to­nio FC/USA), An­dre Ram­per­sad (HFX Wan­der­ers/Cana­da), Wayne Fred­er­ick II (Col­orado Rapids/USA), Kai­him Thomas (De­fence Force), Ajani For­tune (At­lanta Unit­ed/USA),

For­wards: Kevin Moli­no (De­fence Force), Levi Gar­cia (Spar­tak Moscow/Rus­sia), Tyrese Spicer (Toron­to FC/Cana­da), Dan­taye Gilbert/Hol­land), Re­al Gill (Hun­stville City FC/USA), Brent Sam (De­fence Force), Isa­iah Gar­cia (De­fence Force).