Trinidad and Tobago Football Association technical director Anton Corneal expects the national women’s team to be ready for the challenge in the upcoming Caribbean Football Union leg of the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifiers.
Corneal returned this week from a four-match tour of Charleston where T&T won all its four games. The fixtures for the qualifiers have not been released to date by the CFU but Corneal said the team’s preparations will go ahead as planned. The Charleston tour was supported by the SporTT company.
“It was a useful tour for us in that we got to see all of the players together in match situations and in a camp, something which we haven’t had for quite some time and this is not always easy to do because of the fact that so many of them are based in the United States,” Corneal told TTFA Media.
T&T ended the tour with 3-2 win over Coastal Carolina University on Sunday. Kenya Cordner scored twice along with Toronto-based defender Arin King with Cordner netting the winner after T&T came from behind on two occasions.
“The games were competitive which is what we were hoping for. But this team is made up of players with very strong personalities and of course sometimes it works out better for us when they can take that onto the field which is what we saw a couple times in Charleston.
It’s great when they can take that into the matches and help turn results into positive ones. If they can continue to transfer those energies on the field then the sky is the limit for this team,” Corneal added.
He added that a training camp will take place again in May prior to the start of the qualification and that a few new names will be added to the roster.
“We will continue to look at new faces as we continue to see players developing and maturing which is good for us.”
T&T also drew 1-1 with University of South Carolina, defeated College of Charleston 1-0 and Charleston Southern University 7-0 with Cordner, Tasha St Louis, Maylee Attin Johnson and Lauren Hutchinson among the scorers in the win over Charleston Southern University.
The next FIFA Women’s World Cup will take place in Canada between June-July next year. Three and a half qualifying spots are up for grabs in Concacaf.
Team
Maylee Attin-Johnson, Rhea Belgrave, Kennya Cordner, Karyn Forbes, Kimika Forbes, Janine Francois, Dernelle Mascall, Anastasia Prescott, Tasha St Louis, Patrice Superville, Arin King, Afiyah Mathias, Kenya Charles, Jonelle Warrick, Camille Borneo, Lauryn Hutchinson, Linfah Jones, Annalis Cummings, Jo-Marie Lewis and Shenelle Henry.