The T&T Under-20 women’s football team followed up its first leg 11-1 thrashing of St Lucia on Monday with a 5-0 demolition of the visitors in the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) qualifier at the Marvin Lee Stadium last night.
Despite the result, the local girls looked a shadow of themselves with poor communication and an obvious lack of game awareness the major culprits.
St Lucia began with a solid defence and attacked a lot more than in the previous encounter and this seemed to have caught T&T off guard with the strikers constantly being caught offside.
National Under-17 player, Kayla Taylor seemed the only ‘alive’ player on the field, as she created opportunities with intense attacking and clever passes, while managing to avoid the haunting offside trap.
T&T had to wait until the extra minute of added on time in the first half to open the scoring through captain Mariah Shade. The technical staff seemed to have said something right during the break as the team which drubbed St Lucia on Monday returned to the field.
Shade found the net again following a superb run by Khadidra Debisette down the left in the 55th minute. She passed to Natasha St Louis who dribbled past two defenders and returned to her captain who made no mistake, slipping the ball past St Lucia goalkeeper Tyla Nelson.
T&T’s attacks increased and St Louis found herself in the middle of the action a minute later, when she brilliantly shook off two defenders before sending her team three up. Eleven minutes later, Taylor’s hard work paid off when she cleverly placed a diagonal pass by Karyn Forbes to make it 4-0.
T&T continued to create chances, and found the back of the net once more in the 83rd minute, Falina Jack’s goal finishing the match 5-0. The win qualifies T&T for the Caribbean Football Union’s Tournament that will take place on November 18-22 in T&T and involves Jamaica, Cuba and St Kitts/Nevis.
Results
T&T 5 (Mariah Shade 45th, 55th, Natasha St Louis 56th, Kayla Taylor 67th, Falina Jack 83rd) vs St Lucia 0