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Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve said his players and staff are excited about their chances in the Fifa 2026 World Cup qualifying series, as the draw was made in Zurich, Switzerland yesterday.
The Soca Warriors are grouped with Costa Rica, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada and The Bahamas, with the top two nations advancing to the final Concacaf qualifying round.
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From there, the 12 remaining nations will be divided into three groups of four with the group winners advancing automatically to the World Cup final while the two best runners-up move to an intercontinental playoff.
With Canada, Mexico and the United States assured of their spot at the World Cup as co-hosts and Concacaf holding three automatic qualifying berths plus two playoff berths, the confederation will have between six to eight teams at the prestigious football tournament for the first time.
Eve, who steered Trinidad and Tobago to the quarterfinals of the 2023/24 Concacaf Nations League A and a playoff for the 2024 Copa America tournament, said the Soca Warriors hope to take advantage of the opportunity.
“This opportunity we have will probably never happen again,” Eve told the TTFA Media. “When you have these types of opportunities, you have to grasp it with both hands. We are very excited.
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“Some of the players are already calling because they are seeing the draw and they are excited about it. [And] we (the staff) are seeing the possibility of what could potentially happen to us and what we potentially may be able to do.”
At present, Eve is preparing to face Canada in a Copa America play-off at the Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas on 23 March, with the winner advancing to Group of the competition alongside reigning World Cup and South America champions, Argentina.
However, Eve said their real focus is getting to the World Cup themselves.
“The World Cup qualifying is paramount for us,” said the Warriors coach, who recently received a two-year extension from the outgoing Fifa-appointed Normalisation Committee.
(Copyright AFP 2014/ Juan Mabromata)
“The Copa America cup is just a bonus for us really. We wanted to stay in the [Nations League] A and give us ourselves the best chance by being in a good group, so we could possibly have the opportunity to try and qualify for the World Cup.”
There are 32 Fifa-affiliated Concacaf nations involved in the 2026 World Cup qualifying series, which kicks off in March with playoffs between Turks and Caicos and Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands and the United States Virgin Islands.
Trinidad and Tobago, like most Concacaf nations, get started in the second round where each team plays two games at home and two on the road in the June 2024 and June 2025 Fifa match windows.
The Soca Warriors have won recent competitive matches against the Bahamas and Saint Kitts and Nevis, although the latter team qualified ahead of Trinidad and Tobago in the 2022 World Cup qualifying series—which led to Eve being hired in the first place.
Trinidad and Tobago and Grenada have drawn in their last encounters, all friendlies, while the “Spice Islanders” won the last competitive meeting between the two nations back at the 2010 Caribbean Cup.
Still, the Warriors, ranked 96th in the world, are 78 places above Grenada in the Fifa rankings at present, which might say something of the two nations’ current form.
The two nations played to a 2-2 draw.
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From all the Concacaf nations, Trinidad and Tobago have always found Costa Rica to be the toughest opponent—bar none. The Soca Warriors have not taken so much as a point from Costa Rica since a goalless draw in the 2006 World Cup qualifying series.
And it is almost 24 years since the late Mickey Trotman helped T&T to a win over the “Ticos” with a golden goal in a 2-1 triumph at the quarterfinal round of the 2020 Gold Cup tournament.
“We know a lot of the opposition we are going to be meeting in this particular group—two of the teams were actually in the qualifying with us for World Cup qualifying last time,” said Eve.
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“[…] Grenada [are] a little bit known to us but also a little bit unknown from the standpoint that they have a new coach, an English guy, they also have a lot of players who play out of Europe.
“And Costa Rica is a perennial powerhouse of Concacaf. They have been in the last World Cup and they have really good quality players.
“[…] It won’t be easy to come out but we are going to do our best and try to come out.”
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Concacaf 2026 World Cup qualifying
(Second round)
Group A: Honduras, Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Bermuda, Cayman Islands;
Group B: Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Bahamas;
Group C: Haiti, Curacao, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Aruba;
Group D: Panama, Nicaragua, Guyana, Montserrat, Belize;
Group E: Jamaica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Dominica, BVI/ USVI;
Group F: El Salvador, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Turks and Caicos/ Anguilla.
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