ORLANDO, United States, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago international Kevin Molino has lamented his country’s absence from next month’s historic Copa America Centenario.
The tournament, which for the first time will feature Caribbean sides, will be staged from June 3-26 in ten cities across the United States including Orlando, where Molino plays his football for Orlando City in the Major League Soccer.
And the midfielder said the staging of a leg of the tournament in his adopted hometown would be “bittersweet” since T&T would not be participating.
“It’s a little bit bittersweet for me because T&T was about to qualify for the Copa twice and was knocked out,” said the 25-year-old.
Trinidad and Tobago international Kevin Molino.
“Some of our (Orlando City) players will be there, which is good for them, but disappointing in a way that we will be out a couple of players. We’re just happy for them and wish them the best of luck.”
Orlando City captain, Brazilian star Kaka, and Colombian Cristian Higuita, will be taking part.
T&T missed out on a spot in the tournament after going down 0-1 to Haiti in a one-off qualifier in Panama City last January.
Jamaica qualified automatically by virtue of being Caribbean Cup champions and along with Haiti, are the two Caribbean nations involved in the tournament.
Molino said T&T missing out on the chance to play in the Copa had been disappointing but the team planned to focus on the World Cup qualifiers, where they currently lead their group in the CONCACAF fourth round.
“I wasn’t able to play in our final qualifier in January because of my injury and unfortunately for us our team was not in the best shape mentally and I think we didn’t play our best game which saw us lose out to Haiti,” he said. “That was a big disappointment because we missed out on a great opportunity. But we have the World Cup qualifiers to still look forward to and we have a couple good friendlies this month.”
Sixteen teams will feature in the Copa America Centenario which is being staged outside of South America for the first time.
