Starting goalkeeper Kimika Forbes was expected to arrive in Trinidad last night to complete the 22-player training squad currently preparing for Tuesday’s second leg World Cup qualifying fixture versus Ecuador.
Forbes follows her sister Karyn Forbes, along with Rhea Belgrave and Brianna Ryce, who arrived from the USA on Wednesday evening. They were permitted to train with the team given the Thanksgiving holiday.
The players are camping at Hyatt Regency, Wrightson Road, and are training at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
The training squad largely represents the team which traveled to Ecuador earlier this month for the goalless first-leg, but also includes a couple of virtually unknown names in the likes of sisters Nia and Amira Walcott, who are uncapped for the senior team.
In 2010, they were both invited to train with the national U-17 women’s team, before T&T hosted the Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup, but failed to make the final squad. Back-up shot stopper, Tenisha Palmer, who was excluded from the squad for the first leg against Ecuador, was also left out of the training squad as she recovers from an injury.
She was replaced by Saundra Baron.
The training team comprises, Baron, Ryce, Belgrave, the Forbes (Kimika and Karyn), the Walcotts (Nia and Amera), Maylee Attin Johnson, Ayanna Russell, Patrice Superville, Ahkeela Mollon, Mariah Shade, Janine Francois, Arin King, Khadisha Debesette, Khadidra Debesette, Tasha St Louis, Anique Walker, Dernelle Mascall, Jasmine Sampson and Lauryn Hutchinson.
Meanwhile, Ecuador will touch down in Trinidad on Saturday, three days before the match.
The “Tricolor” will camp at the Courtyard at Marriott, Invader’s Bay, which is directly opposite the Hasely Crawford Stadium, the venue of Tuesday’s match.
For Ecuador to beat T&T to qualification for Canada, the South American nation will require a direct win, or any draw other than a nil-nil result, which will force extra-time and potentially penalties.
Ecuador’s head coach Vanessa Aráuz said, in the Ecuadorian press, her team will need to “build a fast game with an attacking mind set”, as opposed to playing for “luck that is accompanied with a draw."