Turks and Caicos Islands Set to Compete in the CONCACAF U-17 Men’s Qualifiers

The Turks and Caicos Islands Football Association (TCIFA), is set to compete in the CONCACAF U-17 Men’s Qualifiers in Nicaragua. CONCACAF announced the U-17 Qualifiers draw just over a month ago. This year’s squad was placed into Group D along with Nicaragua, Antigua and Barbuda, and Belize. These groups were drawn up based on the CONCACAF rankings. The actual round-robin qualifying group stage, however, is not scheduled to occur until August 30th through to September 8th.

At the end of these qualifiers, the four groups' winners will advance into the 2023 CONCACAF Men’s U-17 Championship, where they will face off against the other top 16 ranked teams that have been seeded directly into the group stage.

The Turks and Caicos team will be led by Coach Samuel Okpodu, former Maryland Bobcats FC Coach. He was invited to the Turks and Caicos with the sole purpose of coaching the U-17 men for these qualifiers. Before his time at the Bobcats, Coach Okpodu served as manager for the Newberry Indians, the Warri Wolves, and in addition to that he served for a colossal 15 years as the Nigeria National Women’s Team Coach. However, these titles do not even begin to hold a candle to the other achievements that he has attained throughout the duration of his coaching career. In 2002, he led the Super Falcons to their third African Women’s Championship and just one year later he led the same team in the 2003 FIFA Women’s World Cup staged in the USA. Without a shadow of a doubt, it can be said that Coach Okpodu is not new to the world of football coaching. His determination and dedication have been displayed time and time again over the years, he brings a whole new level of football IQ to the table for the team.

Coach Okpodu says he has felt a ‘warm welcome’ from the other coaching staff and members of the TCIFA. When asked for an honest opinion on how things are currently going with the team, he had the following to say, “Preparation and training are going well, the federation, myself, and the players are all expectant for a show to be put on in Nicaragua”. This statement gives us an insight into the sheer confidence and preparedness this team is conveying.

Dane Ritchie, Technical Director for the TCIFA stated, “As the players prepare for this upcoming tournament, there has been a positive change in attitude towards training. Coming out of the three practice games played against Anguilla, the players are motivated to continue the preparations for these World Cup Qualifying games. Having won all three of those games, the players are more confident in themselves and this is a positive result to build on.” He added, “The World Cup Qualifying games will no doubt be challenging for us but the players and coaching staff are preparing as best as they can to do their best in the tournament.”

All matches for Turks and Caicos will take place in Nicaragua. Their first match is timetabled for August 31st against Nicaragua and their last game on September 6th, where they will meet up against Belize.

Despite going into these qualifiers as the statistical underdogs, it is certain that the team is planning to muster up something special in Nicaragua, based on the words of Coach Okpodu and the rest of the coaching staff, we can anticipate some very remarkable games.