 time for some Caribbean football now on the zone the first phase of the conca calf on the 20 World Cup qualifying began earlier Friday with four matches already completed in the opening game in Group B El Salvador slammed the Turks and Caicos Island 7-0 also in Group B host Antigone Barbuda defeated Guyana by four goals to nil in Group D action at the haste to Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago Canada defeated Dominica by seven goals to nil while in Group E the opener in San Quetzal Neves Haiti were 3-1 winners over the Cayman Islands there are six groups and the group winners only will advance to this summer's 12 team conca calf men's under 20 championship now the top four teams from that tournament will qualify for the 2025 FIFA men's under 20 World Cup in Chile let's remind you of the groups that are being contested here in conca calf Cuba Nicaragua Belize Bridges Virgin Islands and Anguillian Group A Group B will have El Salvador Antigone Barbuda Suriname Guyana and the Turks and Caicos in Group C Guatemala Curaçao Aruba St. Martin that's Prince St. Martin and Barbados the teams in Group D are Canada Trinidad and Tobago St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica that group being played in TNT Haiti Puerto Rico St. Quetzal Neves and the Cayman Islands are in Group E in San Quetzal Neves Group F has Jamaica Bermuda Grenada and Martinique okay so let's learn more about the teams expected to do well in this competition and to do so we are joined by 2006 Trinidad and Tobago World Cup defender Brent Sancho of course TNT has appeared at the under 20 World Cup as well back in 1991 with Dwight York and Angus Eve and Geron Nixon and company some of their outstanding players who transitioned to senior football well also Brent your thoughts on this well first of all how the groups are set up I know one of the groups being played in TNT they're one match already finished how competitive do you think these qualifiers will be interesting obviously the under 20 level really gives you a better reflection as it relates and it's a bit closer to senior national team football it is a jump from under 17 as you would have mentioned Lance and some of these teams would have played in recently as recent as 2023 so this is a bit of a jump this is where really players are now starting to get regular first team football at the professional level so they're half and a half not start to separate themselves here in Trinidad and Tobago already Trinidad is in a very difficult group against of course Canada's and Vincent and Dominica's and obviously Canada might just shame it as being the favorites for this contest say in Trinidad and Tobago as you know one team qualifies out of this group so it really comes down to how well of course Trinidad can navigate their way through the other teams and of course how well they can do against Canada yeah and we know that sometimes in the eastern Caribbean a lot of these teams in the OECS are ill-prepared for this level so and you've mentioned how tough the TNT group is Brent so not entirely surprising that the Canadians would have beaten Dominica by seven goals to nil in the past hour yeah when you look at reports coming out of this group St. Vincent has been in preparation for quite some time as well Trinidad and Tobago had their preparation started last year up until November of last year they had still 32 players in camps so that suggests that they were still trying to melt the team down into some sort of composition that would be partaking in these games here of course they played a couple of friends against Jamaican one against a local outfit in Queen's Park cricket club and I was there last outing the team both of Michael Kinesik only recognized quote-unquote professional plays at Crystal Palace I'll be of course with their youth setup a lot of schoolboy players lands up when it partaked in the SSFL that we saw right here on Sportsmax but in stark contrast the Canadian team that boasts six players that play in Europe with clubs such as Inter Milan and Sheffield United so it's going to be tough for Trinidad of course as you mentioned the teams in the Caribbean do struggle with preparation I just mentioned Trinidad Tobago's and Vincent not really playing any international friendlies but this Canadian team comes in and the backdrops of participating in the under-17 World Cup in Peru and of course have a couple players that partake in that and do feel that they come into this group stage as favorites. Yeah the Canadian result actually finishing about eight goals to nil and the Haiti K-man game still ongoing Haiti leading now by four goals to one in that group over the K-man Islands. I want to talk a little bit about the Senkitsa Nevis group Brent because there was about five or six years ago some Olympic qualifying football which is under 23 but at the time the players were like under 21 and Senkitsa Nevis topped a group that included Jamaica so we know that there are times that Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are not foregone conclusion against their Caribbean Caribbean rivals your thoughts on the Senkitsa Nevis group and how well might they do there. Yeah the reports coming out of there is that they have a team that's been in training as well for quite some time just like St. Vincent and one or two of the other groups lancet they've had some extensive training I think the challenge for Senkitsa and St. Vincent and Tiga etc so they haven't really prepared and prepared in the right way in playing friendly international it's a lot of training has taken part as you saw the list of group the favorites to come out of group of courses Haiti who has had an established training program and regime when these players have been in treatment for quite some time so what has stymied the progress in terms of preparation for some of these U-20 teams is actual games and we know all know how important it is for these youngsters to play a couple games before they get into the real stuff so as much as the preparation in terms of training hours may have been significant I think the plane time of it or the plane regiment side of it has been quite poor. Yeah and about the irregularity Brent with Caribbean teams qualifying for the FIFA under 20 World Cup what's what's your take on that before we speak briefly about a couple of the other groups including the Jamaica group. Look it's a massive concern and if you are part of CFU part of the region you should be very concerned they seem to be a real slowdown in terms of progression and even when there is progression into the bigger into the latter stages you see hefty love-sided defeats and I think a lot of it lances down to the fact that I just mentioned a lot of these kids don't play enough of it play enough international football going to the days where a Grenada would travel across the Trinidad or vice versa Jamaica hop across the Haiti and play these sort of out of season games out of international window games you just don't see it anymore albeit one down to of course a high course of travel throughout the region and no longer lancing this must be mentioned we used to have of course a conca a Caribbean a CFU Caribbean cup at the U-20 level that's no longer in existence so that is a challenge for match practice and international exposure for young players so we are now seeing that when they come onto these stages they're now coming into their third or fourth international game when a player from Costa Rica and Mexico USA part of my gesture is playing well over 10 15 games yeah and the group F Brent with the Jamaicans up against Bermuda, Grenada and Martinique those are the opponents for them the Jamaicans were in TNT a couple of weeks ago with a a couple of practice fixtures I'm not sure if you were able to see any of them but the Jamaica group not looking not looking as tough as maybe the Trinidad and Tobago group does yeah that's correct Jamaica should be favorites but a lot must be said about Grenada and the work that they have put in if they've recruited six players from overseas two of them play at top flight clubs one from Crystal Palace and one from Fulham that seem to be catching the eye so I don't think necessarily that's going to be a walkover for Jamaica and if I was to pinpoint any team in that group that should give the Jamaicans some sort of a run I would suggest that Grenada would be that team yeah and Bermuda did have an upset result over Trinidad and Tobago in some big man football some years ago then they Brent yeah that was many moons ago I remember that game very well right here in the in the center of excellence in Trinidad and Tobago albeit of course Trinidad went to Bermuda and reversed the result and luckily escaped into the reaches of the World Cup qualifiers but yeah it has presented some surprises and teams like Grenada's etc in Vincent do have the capacity of doing it I just think at the U20 level the much preparation or international match preparation it's just not extensive enough to really of course give them the impetus to get the type of result that maybe they could get okay Brent I think we're gonna talk to you a little later on the show as well because there's some more football to talk but just stand by we continue our football discussion here and Mariah is standing by as we continue our football discussion on the zone yeah thanks for that Lance we stay on course with football as the constant spring football field in st. Andrew Jamaica will this Sunday February 25th host the inaugural staging of the All-Star football tournament the tournament will feature the standout players from the Jamaica Independent Schools Association Preparatory and Primary Schools League and the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association that's the ISSA under 14 football competition so joining us to tell us more is the competition director Harron Martin hi Harron good evening to you Mariah good evening to the viewers yes it's a pleasure to have you in studio and we're really excited for this competition that set for Sunday how are preparations coming along well to tell you the true preparation is going on well and based on what I saw the players are very upbeat and they're anticipating ready to go on Sunday yeah of course I know they would be extremely excited tell us a bit about some of the youngsters to look forward to well I can't tell you it's it's an All-Star game there's a lot of youngsters that can pinpoint any one or two players these players are all specials and I can tell the public just to come out and see some good entertaining football yeah and what I know is the winner of the competition will be getting a trophy and of course it's not a regular trophy it's in the name of somebody very special and you can tell us more yes the trophy is our name of the two special players two Jamaican legends of course Walter Boyd and Alan Cole I believe that all versus all primary game they will be playing for the Walter Boyd trophy and the U-14 South versus U-14 North will be playing for the Alan Cole trophy yeah that's something very very special and I hope the players understand what's on the line you said it's an affair you know family can come out anybody can come out and support what's the price for a ticket well children 12 and under it's for free and 500 dollars for adults yeah and what about the start time what time do the gates open gates open at one and game time the all versus all primary game stated to start at 2 30 and the U-14 game stated to start at 4 p.m. all right so what I know for sure is you can't miss this the viewers will be in for a treat and of course you're inviting all the Jamaicans to come down and I mean this this is an opportunity for the players to come out and showcase the skill showcase the the sportsmanship and we at All Star Jamaica we couldn't be any prouder yeah we want to thank you so much for stopping by on the Sportsmax zone and of course for inviting all viewers because I'm sure they have something now to look forward to come this Sunday thank you so much thank you so much too all right so you don't want to miss this event it's all the top youngsters from across Jamaica we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back with you