UNITED STATES team Charlotte Eagles cruised to a 3-0 triumph over the Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-20 Women football team in a friendly match, last Tuesday, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.
The “Ladies Eagles” are all University students making their second visit in 10 years to TT to engage in various humanitarian activities such as visiting The Cyril Ross home for the HIV kids, St Dominic’s and the St Jude Home for Girls.
The Ladies Eagles also partook in coaching sessions with a number of coaching schools.
TT Under 20 coach Nicola Williams, noted, “I was happy to play the match to compete against other female players.
Despite losing 3-0, I am happy that we showed good organisation and exerted our style of play into the game. We need to work on our aggression to win the ball back and put our opponents under pressure.
“The Charlotte team was older than us and able to win more balls in the air – scoring their first goal from a cross and the last from a corner.
Their pace did trouble us on the wings and they were able to get behind our defence a number of times. Our goalkeeper Rebecca Almondoz was able to make a number of saves.
They were also quick to close us down and although we were able to combine and switch the play to find space in the other side we didn’t do it often enough and lost the ball under pressure.
“We have been playing local boys teams to give the players the weekly rhythm of a match where other countries have players playing in full-time leagues. Next month players will join the WOLF league for competition and I will be able to travel around and watch their performance along with scouting any new talent,” Williams added.
“I hope to finish July with an international match of our age (Under-20) to evaluate how our preparation is tracking. This month has seen some foreign based players return for the summer college break so reintroducing them into the team is very important.”