[UPDATED] Newcomer Stephon Marcano joins Soca Warriors for Bolivia friendly

STEPHON MARCANO is the only new face included in the Trinidad and Tobago men’s football team, who will travel to Bolivia on Tuesday for Friday’s friendly international match against the hosts in Sucre.

The 22-year-old Marcano can play both as a right-back and as a right-sided midfielder. The former Fatima College student is currently a student at California State University.

Another uncapped player in the squad is teenaged midfielder Molik Khan, who was a reserve member of TT team at the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup in the United States.

The team, selected by coach Angus Eve on Monday, features the experienced goalkeepers Marvin Phillip and Adrian Foncette, as well as central defender Radanfah Abu Bakr, wing-backs Mekeil Williams and Alvin Jones.

Eve, who spoke to the media during a training session at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Monday morning, mentioned the inactivity of the team since the Gold Cup last July, but hopes the players can give a good account of themselves against a Bolivia squad who are still involved in 2022 World Cup qualifiers.

“Having not had any matches in the last three windows of last year, we thought it very important that we try to play in every window in this year, and you couldn’t ask for a better opposition,” he said. “It may not be so ideal for us because we still don’t have competitive football playing in Trinidad and, mainly, this team is a locally-based team, but this will be good experience (from) a game like this.”

The former TT midfielder and captain mentioned, “They need to play matches to gain experience. It’s all well and good with our training, but we don’t have a league playing at present. If you look at the squad, you’ll see a lot of unattached players, so the national team needs to fill that void by getting matches for them to play to prepare us going into the Nations League.”

Concerning the Bolivia squad, Eve said, “They have picked all their players, 90 per cent of the team plays in Bolivia. The few players that (are based) in Brazil play with Santos and Cruziero. They all are back for this because they have World Cup qualifying (action) about six days after.

“It will be a major test for our guys. The game will be played in Sucre, which is 9,000 feet above sea level, so that will add challenges to our guys, but we need to play in these adverse circumstances.”

Asked how important is it for sport to resume in TT, Eve replied, “If you can have a boat ride that holds 200 (people) then this Stadium holds 25,000, you can have 500 and call it a safe zone.”