Trinidad and Tobago's originally scheduled opening match against Uruguay yesterday in Group A of the football competition at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico was pushed back to October 25 due to the non-arrival of the Uruguayan team.
Clouds of ash spewing from Chile's Puyehue volcano forced flights in Uruguay and Argentina to be grounded.
This means the T&T men's Under-22 squad will now go into their first game against hosts Mexico from 8 p.m. (9 p.m. T&T time) at the Estadio OmniLife tomorrow.
Trinidad and Tobago head coach Angus Eve was not entirely disappointed with the change in schedule as it allowed his players more time to settle in after arriving in Guadalajara on Tuesday morning.
"It actually is not such a bad thing even though mentally we were getting ourselves ready for a game today against Uruguay. But now we would have at least three sessions under our belt, whereby initially we would have trained only once had the Uruguay game been on as initially scheduled," Eve told T&T Football Federation (TTFF) media officer Shaun Fuentes yesterday.
"It means the boys have had a couple extra days to acclimatise here for what definitely will be a huge opening game against the home team. We all know how passionate the Mexicans are at any level and, especially playing at home, they will be firing and their fans will be looking for a good showing.
"I think this kind of environment and competition only augurs well for our boys as it gives some of them an early indication as to what it feels like to play these kind of teams away from home before they actually get to the senior international stage," Eve added.
Team manager Norris Ferguson said despite the challenges with getting the team settled in following their early morning arrival on Tuesday, all was well in the camp as certain conditions were now in place.
"We trained yesterday on a pretty decent astroturf surface. The boys are in good spirits and looking forward to their first match against the home team. Some of them have already faced the Mexican players at the Under-20 and Under-17 age group, so it's just a matter of our players applying themselves well and attempting to gain everything possible from this outing at the Pan Am Games. We will also aspire for favourable results," Ferguson stated.
The Mexicans added goalkeeper Jose Antonio Rodriguez as a last-minute inclusion to their final squad.
Rodriguez, who plays for the Veracruz Red Sharks in the Mexican second division, started for the Under-17 national team at the Nigeria 2009 FIFA Youth World Cup and the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia earlier this year.
All the home team players play professionally in the Mexican leagues and include the likes of Atlas midfielder Ricardo Bocanegra, Toluca forward Isaac Brizuela, Cruz Azul defender Nestor Araujo and Atlante forward Jeronimo Amione.
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com