The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) is yet to address the struggles of the national women’s Under-20 football team at the CONCACAF Women’s Under-20 Championships held at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, from January 18-28.
Tournament winners Mexico, runners-up United States and third-placed team Haiti all booked their places in the 2018 FIFA Women’s Under-20 World Cup in France. But a major talking point during the CONCACAF competition was the poor display of the Jamaal Shabazz-coached T&T team.
The hosts were the only country in the eight-team tournament that failed to get a point in the group stage.
Remarkably, T&T scored first in all three of their Group A matches but failed to hold on for even a draw. They were beaten 3-2 by Haiti after leading 0-2 (January 18), lost 4-1 to Canada (January 20) and went under 2-1 to Costa Rica (January 22).
Prior, during and after the tournament, Shabazz lamented the lack of preparation of the hosts and admitted they lacked the required fitness. In a recent interview, TTFA president David John-Williams promised that a debriefing would be conducted to discuss the poor performance of the squad.
When contacted yesterday, John-Williams said TTFA technical director Anton Corneal “is out of the country right now and the meeting would be next week.”
However, John-Williams was unable to provide a definite date as to when the discussions would be held.
Asked if there are any plans to address the preparations of future national youth teams, John-Williams said, “that’s for the technical committee, not me, if you understand what I’m saying. We have a technical committee in place.”