T&T drawn with Mexico, Haiti and Suriname in Concacaf U-20 Championship

Trinidad and Tobago will battle Mexico, Haiti and Suriname in the group stage of the Concacaf 2022 Men’s Under-20 Championship this June in Honduras. The top three nations in Group F will advance to the knockout stage while the bottom team will be eliminated.

Concacaf confirmed the groupings today at a draw in Miami, which assigned the 16 countries. United States heads Group E with Cuba, Canada, and St Kitts and Nevis. Group G comprises Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Aruba. And hosts Honduras are in Group H alongside Costa Rica, Jamaica, and Antigua and Barbuda.

The group stage matches will take place from 18-23 June in three stadia: Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano and Estadio Morazán in San Pedro Sula and Estadio Nacional in Tegucigalpa.

Once the bottom four nations are eliminated, the 12 survivors join the four nations who advanced from an earlier qualifying round. These are Curaçao, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.

The Under-20 Championship serves as a qualifier for both the Indonesia 2023 Fifa Under-20 Men’s World Cup and the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics. The four semifinalists qualify for the Indonesia Under-20 World Cup, while the tournament’s two finalists advance to the Paris Olympics as well.

The technical staff for the Trinidad and Tobago team is led by Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve and includes Abdallah Phillips (assistant coach), Anton Pierre (assistant coach), Rayshawn Mars (goalkeeper coach), Basil Thompson (manager) and Derek King (data analyst).

The two-island republic did not fare well at the ongoing Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship, finishing bottom of their group after losing all three matches against El Salvador (3-0), St Kitts and Nevis (7-2) and Canada (5-0).

Women’s Under-20 head coach Jason Spence also leads the technical staff for the Trinidad and Tobago Women’s National Under-17 Team.