“VERY disappointing”.
That is how Trinidad and Tobago senior women’s national team head coach Richard Hood described his team’s 1-0 defeat to Aruba in their penultimate game of the Caribbean Queen’s Friendly Tournament 2024 at the Stadion Rignaal “Jean” Francisca in Curacao, on Sunday night.
He said the players didn’t stick to their plans in the first half and it cost them in the end. Hood also noted that T&T would have been without two key players for last night’s final game against hosts Curacao.
“Unfortunately, we are in a situation where we have to get a result in order to win the tournament and in addition to that, we have two players who will actually be suspended for tomorrow’s (today’s) game,” Hood revealed.
“One of them, Kedie Johnson, has been a key player for us in the tournament. She received a second yellow card tonight (Sunday) as well as Talia Martin. They will both be out so we will have to make a shift in terms of player positions and some alterations for that game,” the T&T coach explained.
“Our medical people will have their work cut out for them to get the girls physically ready to come back and play again tomorrow. These are challenges we face tomorrow but we will come up with an appropriate game plan and see how best it works in that game tomorrow,” he added.
Looking back at Sunday’s loss, Hood said: “Overall, I would say I was very disappointed, certainly in the result as well as the first half-performance particularly.” He said his players were behind the pace in the first half and also lacked commitment.
“We were not committed to attacking as we had planned to do. We deviated from the tactical plan offensively and defensively as well in the middle of the field particularly. In terms of possession, it was pretty decent but were not really attacking the score-box and I think that was my disappointment in the first half. We appeared to lack that kind of commitment that would have resulted in creating more goal scoring opportunities for our team,” he said.
T&T were better in the second half where he said he noticed “a complete shift in energy levels.”
“I thought the girls really gave a fantastic effort in the second half but just unfortunate that we were unable to score. We created some good opportunities but the finishing just was not there,” he assessed.
“But I certainly compliment the effort in the second half, the attitude, everything was brilliant in the second half so I was very happy with that. But overall disappointed,” he concluded.
Trinidad and Tobago (4-1-4-1): 21.Mikaela Yearwood (GK); 15.Kanika Rodriguez, 8.Victoria Swift (captain), 2.Shaunalee Govia, 3.Ariana Borneo;6.Chrissy Mitchell (19.Talia Martin 77); 13.Sonia Lamarre, 7.Alexcia Ali (14.Orielle Martin), 10.Asha James, 20.Kedie Johnson; 9.Tori Paul.
Unused substitutes: 1.Maya Figgener (GK), 4.Kaitlyn Darwent, 5.Anastasia O’Brien, 11.Rasheda Archer, 12.Cherina Steele, 16.Hackeemar Goodridge, 17.Mariah Williams, 18.Tayeann Wylie.
Coach: Richard Hood
SOURCE: T&T Express