Proper field needed for soccer training

Technical Director of the National Football Team Ces Podd has stressed the importance of getting the players to train on a proper surface.
Podd says that although those associated with the national squad understand that there is only one main stadium here used for all major sporting events, World Cup football is going to be one of the biggest sporting events.
“This is a massive event,” says Podd, “and SVG needs to do well in it and in order to do well we need to prepare as best as we can.”{{more}}
He said that the problem is we only have one field, “And that is the field that we need to train on. If we don’t train on Arnos Vale One it’s going to be like playing an away game.”
The technical director said that the team is ready to peak and therefore needs to play on the field that they are going to be performing on when they play their home game against Nicaragua.
“We need to be able to train on it on a regular basis so when we play there, it is not alien to us,” stressed Podd, while adding, “All I’m asking is that we get help from the necessary bodies to be able to train on Arnos Vale One.”
The Englishman said that the team would be very grateful if they can train on the field five times a week before the Nicaragua game.
“No one has told us that we can’t have it, but there will be a big problem if we can’t have it,” he said.
Podd said that he would like to inform the public that the country currently has five national teams with three of them preparing for major competitions.
The Under-17 team is currently preparing for a CONCACAF tournament starting on July 4, while the Under-20 team, which currently has 41 players, is also preparing for the Under-20 CONCACAF tournament slated to begin on July 17. The National Team has World Cup qualifying games.
The other teams are the women teams while the Under-13 Centre of Excellence will soon be up and running. “We are reaching out to a large number of kids and in a few years we are going to have an international team,” said Podd who described the 5-1 trouncing of Grenada by our Under-17 squad as an idea of what SVG can achieve in terms of soccer.
“What I want people to understand is that we didn’t come here as magicians and say we are gonna take you to the World Cup finals this year,” explained Podd. “What we said was we will build an infrastructure through a youth programme that will progress us a lot further, probably more than people expect in 2010.”
Podd said that in his opinion, it is a big thing to start from scratch after no real football has been played here for almost four years.
Podd and National Coach Aide Shaw have a two-year contract with a further two-year option to renew and a five-year plan for the development of the sport here. Both coaches are hoping to be here for the entire five years.