Frenderup, Jomal, and Singh ruled out of T&T’s final WCQ against St Kitts and Nevis tomorrow

The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team will complete their Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign with the same pool of 25 players that were available in The Bahamas, after goalkeeper Nicklas Frenderup, midfielder Jomal Williams, and Luke Singh all ruled themselves out of tomorrow’s contest with St Kitts and Nevis from 5pm at the Estadio Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo.

Trinidad and Tobago are second in Group F with five points from three matches and have no chance of beating St Kitts and Nevis to the sole automatic berth to the second Concacaf qualifying round. 

The ‘Sugar Boyz’ have a maximum nine points from their three outings and will face either El Salvador or Antigua and Barbuda in a two-legged second round playoff on 12 and 15 June respectively.

Soca Warriors head coach Terry Fenwick selected 28 players for this match window but allowed Frenderup, Williams, and Singh to miss the first game for a variety of reasons.

In Frenderup’s case, he remained in Denmark for the birth of his child. Williams is still awaiting a new passport, which he hopes to collect today. And Singh, who was born in Canada, spent the last week training with the Canada National Senior Team as one of 11 guest players.

Wired868 can confirm that Singh and Williams have both chosen to focus on their club careers instead, with the Warriors’ World Cup dream already extinguished—following a goalless draw with a Bahamas team ranked 201 from Fifa’s 210 member associations.

Fenwick blamed Saturday’s draw on poor finishing and vowed to retain the same match tactics, with possibly some fresh faces thrown into the mix. 

It is uncertain whether St Kitts and Nevis will rest players tomorrow for Saturday’s first playoff contest against El Salvador at Warner Park in Basseterre, or whether the Boyz will try to retain their 100% record.

The Sugar Boyz are captained by former W Connection goalkeeper Julani Archibald, who now plays professionally for CD Real de Minas in Honduras, and include versatile West Brom midfielder Romaine Sawyers.

The 29-year-old Sawyers, who scored the closing goal in their 3-0 weekend win over Guyana, was born in England but has represented St Kitts and Nevis since 2012.

Fenwick has just one win from four outings as an international coach so far, after starting his tenure with a joint national record defeat of 7-0 to the United States on 31 January.

The Englishman can still earn himself a pay raise—from US$20,000 to US$25,000 a month—and a two-year contract extension next month, if Trinidad and Tobago defeat Montserrat on 2 July and either Cuba or French Guiana on 6 July for a spot in the Concacaf Gold Cup group phase. Otherwise, his current deal expires at the end of 2021.

The Warriors are expected to return home this week and quarantine for 14 days, which should leave them with roughly nine days to prepare for the Montserrat clash. Montserrat are ranked 180th in the world by Fifa and are third in Group A at present, although they have enjoyed a relative spike in fortunes under current Scottish coach Willie Donachie.

(Trinidad and Tobago team)

Goalkeepers: 22.Adrian Foncette (Police FC; 32; 17/0), 1.Denzil Smith (W Connection; 21; 0/0);

Defenders: 16.Shannon Gomez (Sacramento Republic—USA; 24; 3/0), 15.Neveal Hackshaw (Indy Eleven—US; 25; 18/0), 17.Justin Garcia (Defence Force; 25; 3/0), 4.Sheldon Bateau (Mechelen—Belgium; 30; 45/4), 22.Jesse Williams (Unattached; 18; 0/0), 2.Aubrey David (Deportivo Saprissa—Costa Rica; 30; 56/1), 6.Radanfah Abu Bakr (Unattached; 34; 37/2), 12.Robert Primus (FC Bengaluru Utd—India; 30; 9/0), 20.Noah Powder (Real Salt Lake—US; 22; 3/0), 13.Keston Julien (FC Sheriff Tiraspol—Moldova; 23; 3/0);

Midfielders: 18.Michel Poon-Angeron (Unattached; 20; 3/0), 10.Duane Muckette (Unattached; 25; 8/0), 19.Daniel Phillips (Watford FC—England; 20; 3/0), 8.Khaleem Hyland (Al Batin FC—Saudi Arabia; 31; 90/4), Hashim Arcia (Defence Force; 32; 13/1), 14.Andre Fortune II (Memphis 901—USA; 24; 4/0);

Attackers: 11.Levi Garcia (AEK Athens FC—Greece; 23; 29/3), 3.Joevin Jones (InterMiami CF—USA; 29; 80/9), 5.Judah Garcia (Unattached; 20; 6/0), Gary Griffith III (Unattached; 18; 0/0), Nickel Orr (Paeek FC—Cyprus; 20; 0/0), 7.Ryan Telfer (Atletico Ottawa—Canada; 27; 10/4), 9.Daniel Carr (FC Bengaluru—India; 26; 5/0).

Head coach: Terry Fenwick (England)