After a year of inactivity, the Barbados senior men’s football team is about to embark on a tough journey as they go into the First Round of the Concacaf Qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Barbados will kick-off their World Cup campaign in the Dominican Republic, when they face 2018 World Cup attendees Panama on March 25 and then Caribbean counterparts Anguilla on March 30.
Originally organized for a home and away format, Concacaf were forced to make some adjustments due to the impact of the COVID-19 virus.
Out of the five countries in Group D (Dominica & Dominican Republic), Barbados is the only one where there has been no football action since the virus’ arrival in the region last March.
Coach of the “Tridents”, Russell Latapy admits that the lack of football places the squad behind the pack but he is confident that the players will produce a proud performance in each of their encounters, as it has been the case since his arrival.
“What I can guarantee is we are going to be competitive. We have been competitive every game that we’ve played since I’ve been here, so that’s one thing I can guarantee.
Everyone is in very high spirits and feeling good about the games. Everyone wants to get back to playing football.
So we’re excited about working again and getting a buzz around the football again”, said Latapy.
Up until the latter part of December, the Tridents were going through extensive preparation for the qualifiers but when the authorities instructed to halt physical activities, the players were left on their own to follow a physical programme distributed by the coaching staff.
Latapy said he expects that the players would have been discipline enough to follow the programme, however he knows that the technical and tactical phases of the game are necessary for preparation and there are currently plans being put in place to have the team depart two weeks ahead of their first game, in an effort to properly prepare for the encounters.
Team selection poses another challenge caused by the lack of domestic and international football, however, the Trinidadian tactician said he has quality options from a 50 player pool, which includes some familiar overseas-based players and possibly some new ones.
“We’ve sent out the requests to the [overseas] clubs and the players have indicated a willingness to play.
We are awaiting responses from some of the clubs while some have already given permission.
We have a few players who have shown an interest in wanting to represent us, who have not represented us before, so we are speaking to some of these players and we are looking to see what’s their availability.”
Latapy said an influx of foreign-based players should not be expected as he believes the players he has been working with over the last two years can execute as required.
“We have these guys who have been working hard for all that time and deserve the opportunity.
It’s a fine line and we need to find the right balance and it depends on the positions. We know we have some positions which need strengthening, if we get players from abroad who we think can strengthen these positions, we will definitely have them.”
“If you do the work and make the sacrifices, you will have the opportunity”, said the Tridents coach.
Comments