Sports
Enrique Rupert
THE Trinidad and Tobago National Under-20 football team won the inaugural Mayor’s Cup on April 7 at Skinner Park, San Fernando, coming from two goals down against Samba Youths to win the game 4-3.
The team finished the tournament undefeated, getting three wins from as many games.
Technical director of TT football Anton Corneal said while there are no upcoming tournaments for the Under-20s, keeping this core of players together helps in the long-term. Corneal said, “It’s good keeping the boys together, it helps them prepare, for when they move up the ranks. It’s to give them more exposure, something that we haven’t given players this age a lot.”
Many of the overseas players who played at the Concacaf qualifiers were unavailable for selection.
Local players such as Lindell Sween had local club duty with Caledonia and Michael Chaves was unavailable due to an injury he sustained during a TT Premier Football League II game on March 17.
This 21-man squad was chosen based on availability and Brian Haynes loved that he got to see some fresh faces. Haynes said, “I thought the exercise went quite good. It’s something the guys need (playing against men). Exercises like these mean that I get to see more players, players who didn’t get to play in the qualifiers. “In future tournaments, I don’t think it’ll be the same players. It’ll be based on availability, but it helps to see new players. TT has players all over the place. I haven’t seen players from places like Mayaro, Moruga and Guayaguayare so tournaments like these help with that.” Haynes said interacting with more youth players would allow him to then recommend players for the Under-23 and to Angus Eve.
“As I see them, I’m going to create a document with players positions and their hometowns and tell the relevant figures that these are the players we should consider.”
St Anthony’s College’s Andell Fraser won the joint Golden Boot winner and was the MVP in the tournament.
The full squad for the Mayor’s
Cup were:
Tyrese Romain, Kanye Francis (Naparima College) Russel Francois, Theo Crovador, Andell Fraser (St. Anthony’s College), Aydon Caruth (Queen’s Royal College), Cody Cooper, Duhrell Young, Levi Jones, Abayomi George, Vaughn Clement, Gabriel Collins, Isaiah Jacob Jerrelle Thorne (Presentation College Sando), Jaden Williams (Fatima College), J’lon Matthews, Jordan Ferdinand (Malick Secondary), Jeremiah Niles (St. Benedict’s College), Joshua Lewis (San Juan North Secondary), Jadon Pierre, Joshua Figaro (Trinity College East) and Javon Drakes.
