THE NATIONAL women footballers will be using this year to prepare for major football tournaments in 2012, according to the technical director for women’s football Even Pellerud.
Speaking on a video blog on the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) website, the 57-year-old Norwegian pointed out, “there are a lot of big events coming up. The women’s international calendar has become very tight and very good.
So, in 2012, there is Olympic Games,” he continued, “Also, (the) Under-20 World Cup and the Under-17 World Cup so, that means, 2011 is preparations and pre-qualification tournaments, the CFU part of it.
“In July, we’re starting these tournaments with the senior team, and then we go on with the Under-17s and then the Under-20s. So it’s going to be very busy again.”
Pellerud, who coached the national team at last year’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup here in TT, noted that the national players in the Under-17s, Under-20s and “senior” teams are involved in an elite player pool where they train together as much as four days a week, “to keep them fit and to keep them very competitive.”
He continued, “so we are doing stuff almost every day but not in a formal camp format. We are hoping though, before July comes, that we also have international games under our belt. And that includes all our teams.” The ex-Norway and Canada coach is adamant that international exposure is needed to ensure that the national teams will become a fixture at global competitions.
“We have to expose the teams to international competitions,” he stated. “That is the only way you can win internationally is to train internationally, and compete internationally on a regular basis.
“That has been lacking in the programmes here for a long time and I think, with the Under-17s last year, we saw that the training games really made the team much better.
“It was a big difference between my Under-17 team in May compared to what we showcased in September,” added Pellerud. “We hope we can build on that experience, making sure that everyone understands that only by competing fully on an international basis we can regularly go to big tournaments.”