Trinidad and Tobago head coach Francisco Maturana has stepped up the level of competition which the national team will face, starting with a pair of matches in Central America against El Salvador and Honduras next week, as well as games against Venezuela later this month and Ecuador next month.

Trinidad and Tobago national team manager David Muhammad stated yesterday that the technical staff had made a deliberate decision to improve the available players by having them face tougher competition. Darryl Roberts, the former Sparta Rotterdam striker, remains in the squad, while the technical staff want another look at 24-year-old striker Randy Patterson, who has been scoring goals for the Charleston Battery in the United States B League and also made a good debut when Trinidad and Tobago edged El Salvador 1-0 in March at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.

Kendall Jagdeosingh, who now plays with the Puerto Rico Islanders, is also being given a chance to impress Maturana.

Since the matches are not being played on FIFA-authorised dates, T&T's British-based players will be unavailable, but most of the starters who were in the squad that defeated Bermuda 2-0 to advance in 2010 World Cup qualifying will make the Central American tour.

The exceptions are Stern John (Southampton FC), Carlos Edwards (Sunderland) and Swansea defender Dennis Lawrence, who have returned to their clubs for pre-season training.

"Basically, we are playing countries that are rated higher than us and which have national teams that have had some measure of success in Central and South America," Muhammad said. "We have played a number of countries in the Caribbean over the last year, including two games against Jamaica, two games against Bermuda, Barbados and those teams. Now, we look to prepare for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers where we will be playing some of the better teams in the CONCACAF region (USA, Guatemala and Cuba)."

The T&T technical staff are looking forward to tough matches next week while on their Central American tour.

El Salvador are expected to be an improved bunch since meeting T&T four months ago.

El Salvador eliminated Panama from World Cup qualifying with a 3-2 aggregate win last month, while Honduras are also through to the CONCACAF semi-final round of qualifiers where they are in the toughest group, with Costa Rica, Canada and Jamaica.

Following the three away matches, the Soca Warriors play two home matches, against Ecuador on August 8 and Suriname on August 15.

T&T will then leave for Havana, Cuba to play their opening match of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying semi-final round on August 20.