Trinidad and Tobago men’s beach soccer team will begin their quest for a spot in the 2021 Russia FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup on Monday against host nation Costa Rica at 6pm TT time.
The 2021 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship will be the ninth edition of the tournament and will take place at the Sports Complex Fedefutbol-Plycem in Costa Rica between 17–23 May 2021.
The top two teams in each group along with the two best third-placed teams will move forward to the knockout phase of the tournament. Then, the winner and runner-up will qualify for the 2021 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Russia.
After their opening match against Costa Rica, they will then tackle the United States on May 18th and Turks and Caicos Islands a day later. The round-robin matches will be played between May 17-19 whilst, the quarterfinal matches begin on May 21st, followed by the semifinals on May 22nd and the final one day later.
The Beach Soca Warriors have competed in three previous CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championships. They finished 7th in Nassau, Bahamas (2013), 5th in Costa del Sol, El Salvador (2015) and sixth in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (2019).
The Warriors had shown significant growth and improvement in the recent series of matches played against the #8 world ranked Paraguay following a two-week camp.
An upbeat T&T Coach Ramiro Amarelle said in an interview with TTFA media, “We are ready to play, we want to represent our country with pride and we have to work very hard and we want to finally face the competition. Let’s go hard!”
Speaking on the recently concluded camp against Paraguay Amarelle added, “This is a great opportunity for us to be in a camp situation in foreign territory before the competition. There are a lot of aspects of a training camp that are needed and it is good.”
T&T 12-man Squad:
Captain Ryan Augustine (defender), Jabari Gray (goalkeeper), Zane Cooker (goalkeeper), Joash Baird (midfielder), Akinola Gregory (forward), Shallun Bobb (defender), Omri Baird (defender), Lemuel Lyons (pivot), Jesse Bailey (defender), Hakeem King (forward), David McDougall (forward), Kevon ‘Showtime’ Woodley (pivot).
Head Coach: Ramiro Amarelle. Assistant: Jaime Paz.
Groups in CONCACAF Championship:
Group A (Mexico, Panama, Guadeloupe, Belize)
Group B (El Salvador, Guatemala, Bahamas, Dominican Republic)
Group C (Costa Rica, USA, Turks and Caicos, Trinidad & Tobago)
