T&T will be aiming to shake off their two recent losses to CONCACAF champions Costa Rica as they seek a place in the final round of qualification for the 2016 Fifa Futsal World Cup in Colombia later this year.
The T&T team finished a six-day training camp at the Costa Rican Football Federation Goal Project Training Centre yesterday, where they suffered defeats 6-0 and 6-1 in two friendlies against the home team.
In spite of the losses, however, the spirit in the camp is upbeat with all focused on their two-match series with Honduras at the BN Arena in San Jose tomorrow and Thursday. Canada and the United States will also face off for the other spot at stake.
Coach Clayton Morris said: “The mood in the camp remains upbeat. We knew coming here to play Costa Rica was going to be a big challenge for us but I think we came out of it with a lot of positives. The guys know what to expect now and they are just looking forward to these two upcoming matches now.”
Kareem Perry, who represents T&T in both futsal and beach soccer, described their last few days as crucial to the team’s preparations.
“Once we apply all that coach has taught us then we can go far. The two games were hard here as it was quite easy for us playing against teams back in Trinidad but then the level of Costa Rica was much higher. The learning experience here was overwhelming. This is something we had never experienced before and we needed this,” Perry said. He added: “The experience at the Costa Rican training centre has been ideal. The facilities were all available for us in one location and this served us well over the past few days.”
At the CONCACAF Championship, the winner and second-place team from each group will qualify for the semifinals of the Championship and the Fifa Futsal World Cup Colombia 2016.
The winners of the semifinals will advance to the final and the two losing semifinalists will compete in a third-place match. In addition to being crowned the Confederation’s champion, the CONCACAF Futsal Championship will qualify four teams to the Fifa Futsal World Cup.
If T&T qualifies, they will open their campaign against Mexico on May 8 before facing Panama a day later (May 9) and Guatemala, May 10. The other group will comprise Cuba, Curacao, Costa Rica and the winner between the USA/Canada two-game playoff.
Twenty-four nations will gather in Colombia for the Fifa Futsal World Cup in September. The African contingent will feature Egypt, Morocco and debutants Mozambique. Europe will be represented by giants Spain. Also making it to the finals are Azerbaijan, Portugal, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Italy.