 Yeah, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back. It's the Sports Mag Zone and we continue with regional domestic football, this time from Sweet TNT. Two rounds of matches have been completed in the newly rebranded Trinidad and Tobago Premier League. These are the latest results. Police and Defence Force, the Champions Defence Force 2-2, Eagles losing 2-1 to Prison Service, La Orqueta 3-1 over Morvan Caledonia United, 1976 Phoenix losing to FC AC Port of Spain, my four goals to Juan and Sando, 1-0 over Central FC. So after two rounds, AC Port of Spain, Prison Service and La Orqueta Rangers are the pay-settlers. There we go with the table all on six points, then Defence Force in fourth position on four points. Sando, they have three and police rounding all the top six on two. You can see there, five teams yet to get off the mark with 1976 Phoenix FC at the foot of the table. Former Trinidad and Tobago International and Zone correspondent Brent Sancho has been following the action and he joins us now to give the lowdown on the competition. How are you doing Brent? I'm great as usual. Hello to you and hello to Mariah and all your viewers. Yeah, I'm interested first of all in the reception to the start of the TT Premier League season because from where I sit Trinidad and Tobago's football starting to look on the up again with the performances in the Nations League and will have an opportunity still as difficult as it will be against Canada next year to qualify for the Corporate America and so it's a wonderful opportunity for the local based players to I mean excel and impress the coach and it is also an opportunity for the fans to come out and be part of the action. What has the start been like? It's been lukewarm in the sense that we've had you know some of the venues have had a decent amount of spectators. There was a game on Sunday between the armed forces, police, play, defence force had a pretty decent turnout. In terms of the play on the pitch it's not been bad. Of course there are some one or two new teams in the league with actually one new team in the league, one renamed team. Tobago Phoenix is a new team that's come in from the Systile for the first time and then we have Konupia FC changing the name to Eagles FC. I say lukewarm Ricardo because from a corporate perspective I was hoping to see a little bit more corporate support and that's something that's you know a little bit disappointing especially as you rightfully mentioned that the national senior team has been picking up some decent results. We had a very good attendance at the Hazy Corporate Stadium for the Toronto Beagle victory against the United States of America which is now set up this game in March. So when you put all that together you get a lukewarm from me. All right Brent is a hard grader you know, he generally is. Let's talk about what's been happening on the field now and what you make of the action so far. Well it has been as much as the same as last season with the likes of defence force and AC Port of Spain showing already their title credentials. Police FC has signed a significant amount of players inclusive of Alvin Jones, inclusive of Karen Ball Pez Cummins, inclusive of Kaleem Highland who's yet to play yet. So they seem to be the team that is well stuck that it's the favourites coming into it. Of course there's a surprise package so far in prison's FC. They've been doing very well a team that finished second to last last season of course now in I believe in third position undefeated so far and with two victories and of course there's the absence of two teams that are normally and traditionally household names in the league in Trinidad in W Connection and San Juan Jablote. But all in all in terms of the action on the pitch it has not been bad. I think a lot of it is showing that the teams that are now starting of course as the team's minus defence force, minus club San Juan, minus AC Port of Spain, all who partook in the Caribbean club championship are just getting up to speed. They probably had an abbreviated preseason and they didn't really get, they have not really gotten the stride but those three teams that I mentioned seem like teams that are already interested. So it's early doors still interesting results, interesting football so far but the front runners are the front runners and they have already started to set the pace. Yes Brent and I was looking at the result from Lahoketa versus more of Caledonia. Lahoketa starting the season with a bang. Talk to me about this steam and some of the strengths and you know what are we expecting from a team that has already started very hot. Yeah and that's a team that certainly will be in the reckoning. Of course they slipped off last season significantly albeit of course they ended up in the finals of the cup competition. They've gone very young Mariah. They have a couple of 16-year-olds, a quartet of 18-year-olds and they all seem very competent to perform. Josiah Edwards out on the left hand side has looked at a bit of a handful but Daniel David, a player that has come through the ranks and is now playing. Tariq Lake, a youngster that played with Symbiotics College is now with of course the Minox, Lahoketa Rangers are doing exceedingly well and they've also had a bit of a revamp at the back as well. So they look a solid team not necessarily unbeatable but very solid. I think for them it's about consistency because the fall off last year was surprising to many here in Trinidad today because there were expectations that they would challenge the likes of Defense Force and AC Portaspin but with the youth that they have so far they look like a team that could certainly cause their trouble on the day. Right and I know Brent in your response to Ricardo you named a couple of star players to look out for. Talk to me a bit about this one. Isaiah Lee what has he been looking like you know what are we to expect? I'm very impressed Mariah from what I've seen with Isaiah Lee. A tricky customer plays out in the left hand side very comfortable in 1v1 situations, drives at defenders, has a finished product as well. He scored a couple of goals and Ricardo mentioned the fact that of course you had to be able to play as Canada next season, next March for that all important spot in the Copa America. You just have a feel Mariah that there are one or two players who have a point to prove through the national coach who obviously was at the last fixture between Tim and Xlahokita Rangers and Caledonia FC and he would have been impressed with Lee albeit he came off at halftime he ruled his ankle but he performed so well in the first half that he was a judge man of the match for the entire game. He's a player have to look out to Alexander from Central FC is looking like the type of player that could obviously knock on the door for a national team call-up. There's Nathan Lewis who hasn't been called up for the last five years or so have looked the man rejuvenated so it has shown some players looking for that national team play looking to get involved in the possibility and the reckoning to play against Canada which has of course made this league very interesting and of course as I mentioned some of the old-timers the Alvin Jones, the Joven Jones, Kaleem Highland all with police FC which makes it a nice callaloo as we say in Trinidad. Yeah Brent I want to get your assessment of the reaction in Trinidad and Tobago of a few top players deciding to come to the Jamaica Premier League as opposed to play their football there in Trinidad and Tobago. Nathaniel James played 24 minutes at the weekend for month-pleasant over it as well. Of course we've seen an influx of Caribbean players coming into the JPL but I want to get the response specifically out of Trinidad and Tobago though especially because you are trying to revive the TT Premier League and in its second season it hopefully will gather even more momentum. Yeah look I'm not surprised Ricardo because at the end of the day maybe five to seven years ago it was the other way around players came to Trinidad to play their trade of course with the clubs here but the league has really taken ahead over the last three four years financially that is the clubs have suffered significantly coming down into the pandemic and of course the pandemic would have accelerated that rut that was happening within the club so financially they weren't able to of course accommodate players coming from open seas so we've seen an exodus of players even at the high school level we've seen players go across to Jamaica as well. So I'm not surprised from that manner what what I'm happy with this season so far there are a couple teams that has players coming in for example Eagle FC have three players from Haiti, Caledonia FC has a couple players from St. Lucia and Guyana so we're so slowly seeing that integration of players coming back to Trinidad but as it is now it is not the finished product it's still the league that is trying to find this footing that's trying to find of course its stability and it's trying to find its old form of being one of the top teams if not the top team in the Caribbean because for many years teams from Trinidad to be good dominated the Caribbean football club championship we haven't seen that for quite a while in fact all three teams from Trinidad have been knocked out in the group stage so it's still getting there it's still rebuilding there's still some time for it to build I think this year Ricardo for this league is exceedingly important because it will now start building the platform which hopefully will be a brighter and bigger league in the future. Yeah Brent Sancho thank you very much and you speak about the Caribbean club championship of course and Jamaica's Cavalier in that final and there were two Jamaican teams because how have you got to the semifinals as well in the last four so the Jamaica Premier League at this stage can say that they are what the TT Premier League was some years ago but hopefully the TT Premier League can get back to that level and we can see the clubs doing extremely well at the CFU and beyond that the Conqueror Cavalier as well thanks very much for joining us Brent and we'll chat again. Thanks guys I have a great one. Yeah before the break a reminder that the TT Premier League continues on Friday with round three these are the match-ups for the third round of action Sender versus Eagles Prison Service versus the Champions Defense Force Police versus Phoenix Central will be a way to point 14 and Port of Spain against La Oqueta. There you have it that's coming up in the next round of matches in the TT Premier League let's take a break we'll go back with more