Trinidad and Tobago women footballers lost its Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women's Under-20 semi-final 2-0 to hosts Haiti on Wednesday night and will now meet Puerto Rico for the final qualifying spot into the CONCACAF Zone final to be held in December.
Haiti defeated T&T in the night's feature match, while defending champions Jamaica defeated Puerto Rico 2-1.
Both semi-final winners Jamaica and Haiti automatically advance to the eight-team CONCACAF Championship scheduled for December 3-13 in Honduras and will also battle tonight for the Caribbean Championship title in the final match of the series.
In the feature match on Wednesday night, hosts Haiti scored in either half, then survived a stern second half challenge from the T&T young women. The Haitians came out the gates with clear intent. They controlled the game and dominated possession, making it hard for the T&T side to gain any momentum in the first half.
The first goal came for the host nation in the 35th minute when Sabine Chandler gave her team an early lead. Minutes later, T&T would almost sneak in a goal against the run of play, but Haiti defended well, taking their lead into the half-time break.
Early in the second period saw more Haitian domination, and Nerilla Mondesir made it 2-0 in the 51st minute for the hosts. The T&T team then came into its own, enjoying its best spell in the match, but Haiti held on the for the 2-0 victory, advancing to the finals to face Jamaica today at 6 pm.
The first semi-final between Jamaica and Puerto Rico was a closely-contested, hard-fought affair. The young Reggae Girlz began the encounter in high gear, attacking the Puerto Rican defence from all sides. The Puerto Ricans would find it hard to cope with the early game pressure and it showed when Jamaica opened the scoring in the 3rd minute when Simone Wark slotted home from inside box.
Puerto Rico recovered midway through the first half but Jamaica's defence held strong to go into the break 1-0.
Puerto Rico returned for the second half revived, creating chances and, at various stages, dominated play. But Jamaica broke their momentum in the 64th minute when Deneisha Blackwood made it 2-0. Puerto Rico pulled one back in the 83rd when Alejandra Carrion gave her team a fighting chance but it was too late as the match ended 2-1 in favour of Jamaica.