Soca Warriors (T&T) and Grenada faceoff for Concacaf World Cup

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago: The Soca Warriors will open their Group B Concacaf World Cup Second Round of qualifiers in Grenada on June 5. The team will be led by coach Angus Eve, of 51-years of age. 

The national senior team consists of 117 capped players. Following this, they will play their four-match, which is scheduled in 2025, with a home encounter against St Kitts and Nevis on June 6. 

Notably, they will compete in the qualifier round in Grenada before travelling to the Bahamas three days later for their second match in the five-team round-robin series towards the FIFA World Cup 2026. 

Noting this, the 2026 World Cup will be jointly hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico. Concacaf announced the schedule for the first and second-round matches of the Concacaf qualifiers on Monday. 

The selected teams will include three separate rounds. The competition will have 32 FIFA-affiliated Concacaf Member Associations. 

Commenting on the event, Eve was quick to point out that Concacaf qualification is no longer just for the so-called big teams, as smaller countries have the opportunity to bring in high-quality players who may have been born overseas but have first or second-generation connections to the country through their parents or grandparents. 

“These situations have even up the playing field somewhat with teams like the Bahamas having players from the USA, while St Kitts and Nevis and Grenada having the luxury of English-born players”, added coach Eve. 

The coach expressed his concern about funding the team and stated the urgency of involving more players from local and international sources.

“It’s not as easy as everyone thinks it will be. We want to qualify for the next World Cup for certain, and we will need the financial support of corporate T&T as well, and we also want to have the chance to get more players involved, so some adjustments to our immigration law to allow us to get more overseas-born players involved is also welcomed”, remarked the coach. 

Schedule of the matches

The first round will take place in March and will feature Playoff I between the four lowest-ranked CONCACAF member associations (based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings as of December 21, 2023), with Anguilla hosting the Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands hosting the British Virgin Islands in first-leg matches on March 22.

Noting this, the return-leg matches will be played on March 26 with the total score winner in each playoff. He will head to the second round.

For the second round, the winners of Playoff I will join second-round Group E against Jamaica, Guatemala, Dominican Republic and Dominica. Moreover, the winners of Playoff II will enter second round Group F with El Salvador, Suriname, Puerto Rico, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The winners of the second round of Concacaf qualifiers in June 2025 will progress to the final round, which takes place in September, October and November 2025 among the 12 member associations. 

Further, the 12 teams will be divided into three groups of four teams that will compete with each other, and the three group winners will qualify directly for the FIFA World Cup 2026.