T&T’s Soca Warriors will face Grenada in an international friendly at the National Stadium, St George’s Grenada on March 19, in preparation for their upcoming 2018 World Cup qualifiers against St Vincent & The Grenadines on March 25 in Kingstown and March 29 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
T&T is currently in second place with four points in the Concacaf semi-final round group, behind USA on goal difference, with Guatemala third on three points and St Vincent & The Grenadines, fourth without a point. The top two teams from the group will advance to the Concacaf Final round of qualification towards the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Hart said the game comes at a good time as he seeks to look at players who can potentially increase the player pool for the rest of the qualifying campaign as well as other upcoming international competitions including the Caribbean Cup. “It serves two purposes as I’ve been asking for a sort of local camp in which the home-based players can be looked at in a camp environment and in an international match scenario,” Hart said yesterday.
“Secondly the local Pro League will be breaking a few days well before we play our next two World Cup qualifiers, so getting these players together and keeping them active will keep players who can potentially be in the World Cup squad, game sharp and ready for the two games later in the month.”
“It’s good to have a game against them (Grenada) but for me what is more important is the camp environment and giving players an opportunity so that they can push to create a bigger player pool.
“We have the two qualifiers in March and then we have to potentially look at the FIFA dates in May where hopefully we can get at least two quality games, and then there’s the Caribbean Cup which is crucial to the Gold Cup. And of course we cannot forget the closing two semi final round games in the qualification in September,” Hart added.
The FIFA international window begins on March 20 but the National Team will have access to the players from the Pro League a few days ahead of it the friendly fixture on March 19 in St George’s. Hart will announce a squad for the Grenada encounter comprising largely home-based players, later this week.
Grenada has a pretty decent history against T&T, having twice defeated the “Soca Warriors” in Concacaf Gold Cup qualifying action, the latest being in 2010 when they defeated T&T 1-0 at the Caribbean Cup in Martinique to eliminate them. They also completed a 2-1 win in 2008 in the Caribbean Cup in Jamaica. Those two wins came in the two most recent meetings between the teams.