Eve hails “fantastic opportunity” as Soca Warriors accept invitation for Thailand’s King’s Cup

The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team will participate in the 2022 edition of the King’s Cup, after accepting an invitation from the Thailand Football Association earlier this week.

The four nation invitational tournament comprises two match days on 22 and 25 September and also features Malaysia and Tajikistan. The outings will be Trinidad and Tobago’s first international games since a 4-1 win over St Vincent and the Grenadines on 13 June 2022.

Soca Warriors head coach Angus Eve described the fixtures as “a fantastic opportunity” for his team in the last Fifa match window of 2022. He thanked the Thailand FA and the Fifa-appointed normalisation committee for making it happen.

“Again, this is a continuation of our process towards getting the best possible team for the future,” Eve told the TTFA Media, “which includes not just the Gold Cup 2023 and the next phase of Nations League matches but also the 2026 World Cup qualification.

“We are coming off a good run in the Concacaf Nations League with three consecutive victories and we will be looking to build on this in these upcoming matches during the September window.”

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A TTFA release said the Men’s National Senior Team will start preparing for the King’s Cup “within the next few weeks”.

At present, the Soca Warriors are ranked 101st in the world by Fifa while Thailand are 111th and Tajikistan and Malaysia are 108th and 147th respectively.

Trinidad and Tobago played Thailand twice before and lost both games—away to the Asian outfit—3-2 and 1-0 in 2004 and 2018 respectively. Eve was captain of the Warriors team that faced Thailand in 2004, while Bertille St Clair was head coach.