Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 women’s footballers battled to a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica’s National Under 20 Women’s in a warm up fixture at the Costa Rican Goal Project Centre in San Jose on Wednesday evening.
Preparing for next month’s Concacaf Final Round World Cup qualifying phase, T&T reportedly took a defensive approach to the encounter and head coach Jamaal Shabazz was satisfied with the result against what he described as a very potent Costa Rican team comprising several players who represented them at the last FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup in New Zealand.
Costa Rica had the better of the first half with some nine attempts on goal but a brave display by goalkeeper Kimika Forbes kept the game scoreless at half time.
T&T upped their game in the second half and had five attempts on goal, same as the hosts, and had an opportunity to snatch a late winner when forward Jo Marie Lewis had her header crash off the upright in the final couple minutes.
Shabazz commended defenders Afiyah Matthias,Tiana Bateau, Camille Borneo, Forbes and skipper Mariah Shade for their efforts in the match.
“We played a very defensive game against a strong Costa Rican team,” Shabazz told TTFF Media.
“All in all I was satisfied with the performance because Costa Rica at this point, in my opinion, is three goals better than us but we showed great discipline to dig in and grind out a result. We played defensively when we needed and we attacked when the opportunity was there. In our next game we intend to press them from much earlier and even though that may be a risky approach, we will go out and see how it turns out for us especially in preparation for matches against an even more superior opponent,” Shabazz added.
T&T will take on the same Costa Ricans at midday (T&T time) on Friday at the same venue.