Canada Under-19 team began their three-match tour of Trinidad on a winning note on Thursday, defeating the national Under-19 squad 3-1 at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Tunapuna.
The match, used by the Trinidad and Tobago lasses as a warm-up ahead of the forthcoming Caribbean Football Union (CFU) qualifiers, proved crucial as it showed the advances made as well as the amount of work needed in the weeks ahead. The local girls were noticeably tentative and overawed in the first half, as they struggled to make any headway against a clearly fitter and well-meshed Canadian outfit. But the TT squad showed great heart in the second stanza, as the valiantly took the fight to the visitors. A moderate-sized crowd of 1,000 did not even settle in to their seats when the Canadians went ahead after seven minutes, with midfielder Veronique Maranda driving her 25-metre attempt past TT goalkeeper Lisa-Jo Ramkissoon. The three-player back-line of captain Nadia James, Kia Rigsby and Katrina Meyer, in addition to defensive midfielders Nyasha Reyes and Dernelle Mascall, seemed unprepared for the quick-moving Canadian attacks, led by captain Katie Thorlakson and Aysha Jamani.
Constantly catching the TT defence with a series of short passes and movement off the ball, the visitors went two goals up in the 17th. A quickly-taken freekick by Kate Bazos found Jamani on the right and, after getting the better of Rigsby (who had a torrid time on the left), slotted home past a flat-footed Ramkissoon. Striker Maylee Attin-Johnson worked hard up front for the local girls, and was involved in the first meaningful attack in the 39th, with a left-side pass finding Aveann Douglas clear on the right but her half-volley sailed overbar. A minute later, Trinidad and Tobago earned a penalty when tiny Tobagonian striker Kenya Cordner was brought down in the box by Emilly Zurrer. But James spotkick was held, on the rebound, by goalie Stacey Vanboxmeer.
Ramkissoons tendency of sending the ball out to her defenders instead of clear up-field was prone to error, and it backfired in the 51st, when substitute striker Josse Belaner outfoxed Meyer on the right and, after racing clear of the defender, rolled the ball under the dive of the TT keeper and into the back of the net. TTs two most energetic and enterprising players, Attin-Johnson and Russell, teamed up for the teams lone item in the 70th, with Attin-Johnsons audacious right-side lob from a Russell throw catching Vanboxmeer off-guard.
Trinidad and Tobago: Lisa-Jo Ramkissoon (Gail-Ann Thomas 83rd); Nadia James (capt), Katrina Meyer (Christine Rose 78th), Kia Rigsby (Anastasia Prescott 52nd); Ayanna Russell, Nyasha Reyes, Jamilia Mathlin, Dernelle Mascall (Tandia Taylor 68th), Aveann Douglas (Stephanie Barrow 83rd); Kenya Cordner (Kermica Alexander 52nd), Maylee Attin-Johnson (Joseann Boyce 86th).
Canada: Stacey Vanboxmeer; Emily Zurrer, Marie Parrault-Merrier, Stephanie Gibson, Katie Radchuck; Kate Bazos (Amanda Ciccinni 59th), Veronique Maranda, Lisa Collison, Sari Raber (Selennia Iacchelli 37th); Aysha Jamani (Josse Belaner 46th), Katie Thorlakson (capt).