Courtesy: Trinidad & Tobago Football Association Web Site


T&T FUTSAL BOYS SET TO TAKE ON PUERTO RICO IN CFU FINAL

“Agility, coordination, speed and a lot of footwork is what you are going to get on the court.”

That’s how former Strike Squad captain and current coach of the Trinidad and Tobago National Futsal team Clayton Morris summed up the expectations of those expected to turn up at the Candedo Hall, Centre of Excellence for the opening day of matches in the CFU Futsal Final Round on Thursday.

T&T, winners of the inaugural Caribbean tournament in 2004, will face Puerto Rico from 7pm in the second game of a double header on Thursday. Guyana and St Maarten will meet each other from 5pm.

There will be two groups contested at the Centre of Excellence with the winners moving on to the CONCACAF Final round. Group A comprises T&T, Puerto Rico and Suriname and Group B includes Guyana, St Maarten and Haiti. The two Caribbean qualifiers will join Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, USA and the host, Guatemala at the 2008 CONCACAF Futsal Championship at the Domo Polideportivo in Guatemala City from 2-8 June.

The CONCACAF Championship will also progress three teams to the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup in Brazil from 30 September - 19 October
The T&T 12-man squad includes just four players who were not part of the 2004 winning team. They are goalkeeper Jason Bowen, Clint Ramond, Brent Antoine and Javon Skeee.

According to Morris, the T&T outfit is a more experienced one this time around.

“The players are now used to the type of competition they will be going into. Back in 2004 the guys were surprised that in their early 20s they were given an opportunity to play for their country. Now however we have a team that has players who are experienced and know what it is all about. They are prepared to take on the responsibility a lot more than they did in first tournament,” Morris told TTFF Media.

Morris explained the process of preparing a Futsal team as opposed to working in relation to the regular type game played on the international standard size playing field.

“The first time we were going into such a tournament I used my experience along with Hutson Charles as a big field player to transfer it onto the Futsal court. If you look at the Dutch system in particular where their development is focused on the diamond shape, they are masters of the 4v4 method in training and they work that system in their training and then transfer it onto the big field for international football. What we do is similar but in a reverse format as we transfer it onto the Futsal court whereby even though it’s a five a side game it’s still 4v4 because it’s four outside players and a goalkeeper.

He also used the Brazilian stars as reference to what the Futsal game can offer.

“If you look at Ronaldinho and Romario who scored most of his brilliant goals with his toe, you tend to see that their development stemmed from Futsal type football. So it’s a real joy as well for us coaches to see the kind of footwork being executed by our local players and hopefully this will all work in our favour and help to push us on to another title in this tournament.”

“Fortunately we had the opportunity to be part of a Futsal course in 2005 so that has helped us in preparing for Futsal. In Futsal everything is done at a quicker pace.. it’s all attack and defend with no midfield play. The ball is almost always in play and you have the advantage of making flying subs,” added Morris who has Hutson Charles (assistant coach), David Cumberbatch (trainer/physio) Winston Payne (equipment manager) and Alexandrine Procope (manager) as his support staff. (April 1, 2008)

The full T&T Futsal Team.
Kevin Graham, Clint Raymond, Javon Skeete, Sterlin O’Brien, Anthony Small, Brent Antoine, Wendell Douglas,Jerwyn Baltasar, Kevin Peters, Colin Joseph, Ricardo Bennett and Jason Bowen





Posted by Luca Ranocchiari --> luca.ranocchiari@futsalplanet.com