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 Trinidad and Tobago’s National Senior Team will face of f with Chile’s National Senior Team in a friendly International in Santiago on January 24.
The team leaves for Argentina on January 21 and will then cross over to Chile for the encounter before returning to the set up in Argentina.
Head coach Francisco Maturana and TTFF operations official Cheryl Abrams traveled to Argentina this week and confirmed on Thursday that the T&T team will engage in the training camp at the Cafar Training Centre which his famous for hosting the Boca Juniors football club as well as the Argentina National Team.
An advisory from Cafar states “CEFAR is settled in La Candela, a historic place for soccer. In this building, over this lawn, under this archs, trained the first divisions of the Club Atlético Boca Junior, including among the biggest personalities at the time, Diego Armando Maradona.”
The training camp will be funded by the TTFF to the tune of USD100,000. During their stay there, the T&T team, which will include Assistant coach/Player Russell Latapy, will play four training matches against Argentina Primera Division club Independiente (January 28), Velez Sarsfield (January 30), Gimnasia y Esgrim de la Plata (February 1) and Second Division club Quilmes on February 3.
The Cafar venue has the following facilities and lodgings:
- A house for the concentration of 1° division staff
- Conference room
- Teaching rooms
- International cuisine
- Full board
- Comfortable rooms with many facilities
- Telephone, Television and interntet connection
- Play room
- Full laundry service
- Central heating and air conditioning
- 24 hours security
24 hours Kinesiology doctors
- Permanent sports doctor
- Pharmacology
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TTFF Special Adviser Jack Warner revealed that the move to stage the build up to El Salvador in Argentina was a well thought out one.
“We felt it was necessary to ensure that the team was in a perfect football environment for its preparations before the El Salvador encounter and after much discussions, we decided upon the Cafar venue which is second to none in Argentina. The head coach Maturana knows the venue and this is a plus while our Assistant Coach Russell Latapy was also informed of the venue and is pleased to be joining the team for it,” Warner told TTFF Media.
“We are aware of the fact that the European-based players will only join us in El Salvador but that’s the way it has to happen and therefore there was the obvious need to ensure that the players available to us now would be given the best form of preparation to make up for the fact that they are now in off season. And some of them will of course join the overseas-based players to form the final team for El Salvador.”
Team manager David Muhammad and team trainer Jorge Ruiz will return from El Salvador on Sunday, currently there inspecting the match and training venues as well as finalizing accommodation arrangements for the team.
The T&T Under 20 team also departs for Brazil on January 18 for a ten-day training camp which will be funded by the TTFF to the tune of USD 88,000.
Warner revealed too that T&T will host the eight-nation CONCACAF Final Round of Qualification for the Under 20 World Cup here on March 5-15. The event in itself will cost USD 300,000.
Local fans will get to witness the best of regional youth football with Canada, Mexico,United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador and two other countries will battle for four spots at the 2009 FIFA Under 20 World Championship in Egypt from September 25-October 16.
The draw for that final round of qualification as well as the U-17 Final round will take place at the CONCACAF Headquarters, Trump Tower, New York next Thursday.(Jan 8,2008)
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