Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Women’s team are engaged in intense preparations ahead of their opening match in the Caribbean Football Union Women Challenge Series against Suriname on April 25th at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
This is the third women’s competition organized by the CFU, after the 2000 CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup and the 2014 CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup.The last competition was the 2014 Caribbean Women’s Cup, which was won by Trinidad and Tobago. Haiti won the inaugural competition in 2000.
It is being played across five venues, and serves as preparation for the CONCACAF Championship and World Cup qualifiers starting in May. Unlike the two previous CFU Women’s Caribbean Cup tournaments, there is no final round and thus no overall champion.
Group C action commenced in Haiti on Wednesday with the hosts defeating US Virgin Islands 7-0 while Cuba also getting past Barbados 7-0 in Group B action over in Kingston.
T&T captain Tasha St Louis said she anticipating the upcoming matches following T&T’s recent two-game exercise with Panama.
“I think these games are good for us because in in the past we really never hard a tournament such as this to prepare us for the World Cup qualifiers coming in May. These matches will help show where we are with fitness and how much work needs to be done,” she added.
Teammate Ayana Russell is also of the belief that the T&T team will find its rhythm at the right time as they use these matches to fine tune for the qualifiers.
“It’s a good opportunity to help improve team dynamics on and off the field with us figuring out what each teammate likes, the advantages and challenges,” Russell said.
“It’s a good opportunity for the staff to evaluate what works and what does not. After this tournament there really can’t be much experimenting so having the opportunity to do that right before qualifiers is huge for us. The team chemistry and cohesiveness will improve every time we play together and every time we get an opportunity to spend more time together. These little things make the difference in the overall preparations of our team,” Russell added.
Kick off is 6:30 on April 25th with Guyana meeting Grenada in the first game of the double header from 4pm. Double headers will continue on April 27th and 29th.