Trinidad and Tobago’s Men’s Olympic team will kick off their qualifying campaign for the 2016 Olympics with a Group Four Caribbean Football Union Qualifying match against Suriname in Puerto Rico on June 24th.
The fixtures, released by the CFU shows T&T in Group F along with hosts Puerto Rico, Suriname and the winner of the Dominica versus St Vincent/Grenadines tie.
According to a Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) release yesterday, only the winners of the group will advance to the CFU Final Round in August from which the top two teams will move on to the CONCACAF Final round in the United States in October.
T&T’s Olympic team began preparations at the Hasely Crawford Stadium yesterday morning under head coach Zoran Vranes.
The former T&T Senior team and Under 20 head coach believes T&T can move into the CONCACAF phase but wants his players to know the qualification campaign will be no easy task.
“Well you can see it’s not going to be an easy ride at all. Only one team will come out of our group and we are playing away from home. Okay, we know all of these teams from the past but football is always played one the day,” he told TTFA Media.
“But our players have the experience and the capability to beat these teams. They will have to focus from the start and take that through to the entire campaign. Qualifying for the Olympic games is a great achievement and every country wants to be there. This is like a World Cup because the football tournament at the Olympics has a lot of significance as well,” Vranes added.
The CFU also released the fixtures for the Women’s Olympic qualifiers. Trinidad and Tobago are in Group Two from August 21-25. T&T will open the group against Cayman Islands on August 21st. They will also face St Lucia on August 23 and Antigua/Barbuda on August 25.
The winners of the four preliminary groups will advance to the CFU Finals in October. The top three teams will then enter the final CONCACAF round (dates and country to be determined) which will involve a final eight teams from which the top two will advance to the Olympics.
Further details on the T&T Women’s Olympic team will be revealed in due course.
Women’s schedule
August 21 1 St Lucia Antigua & Barbuda
August 21 2 Trinidad & Tobago Cayman Islands
August 23 3 Antigua & Barbuda Cayman Islands
August 23 4 Trinidad & Tobago St Lucia
August 25 5 Cayman Islands St Lucia
August 25 6 Trinidad & Tobago Antigua & Barbuda
Men’s schedule
June 24 1 Suriname Trinidad & Tobago
June 24 2 Puerto Rico Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines
June 26 3 Trinidad & Tobago Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines
June 26 4 Puerto Rico Suriname
June 28 5 Dominica / St Vincent & Grenadines Suriname
June 28 6 Puerto Rico Trinidad & Tobago