Eve wants to give local footballers chance to prove worth

TRINIDAD AND Tobago men’s coach Angus Eve wants to give as many players as possible the opportunity to showcase their talent ahead of forthcoming tournaments.

On Thursday, the TT footballers resumed training under Eve for the first time since the Concacaf Gold Cup in July.

Eve, who was the interim coach during TT’s Gold Cup campaign in the US, was named as the full-time coach with a two-year contract earlier this month.

Discussing the training session at the Diego Martin Sporting Complex, Eve said, “Things went really well. The guys seem to be very enthusiastic. They want to be part (of the squad). We have a lot of new players, a lot of younger players that we trying to establish and give some exposure to. This camp has a good blend of some of the experienced players who would have played in the Gold Cup and we have a lot of new kids who came on board. We giving them this opportunity to show themselves and from the enthusiasm I saw from them today it was really good.”

Eve is hoping to line up matches for his players in the two international windows coming up, in October and November respectively.

“We are hoping to maximise those international windows. The first one we were trying to get a game that we could use the locally-based to get them a bit of experience and some of the players who did not play with me in the Gold Cup, so I could get a first hand viewing of them.”

Eve, who said six new players have joined the squad, wants to have all his foreign-based players available for the second international window in November.

“The rest of the players we will leave it for the last window of the year where we could bring the full team in after we had looked at this group, and some of the foreigners, that we did not see before to give ourselves a real platform building towards next year going into the Nations Cup.”

Under Eve, TT had a respectable showing at the Gold Cup which included a 0-0 draw against Concacaf powerhouse Mexico.

Eve, who is also the national Under-20 coach, is starting to scout players for future tournaments.

Eve said because no football has been played for 18 months, he is contacting managers and coaches of top youth clubs and schools to recommend players who will be an asset to the national Under-20 team.