Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 17 Women footballers demonstrated their superiority over Dominica by securing a 13-0 win in Wednesday’s Caribbean Football Union Group B World Cup qualifier at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar.
The win kickstarted the campaign for the 2012 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbeijan (September 12- October 13, 2012).
Three Caribbean teams will progress to the final Concacaf round next year with the top three moving on the World Championship. Already United States, Mexico and Canada are into the final qualifying round.
Khadidra Debesette, one of the survivors from the 2010 World Cup squad, led the charge with four goals in the 15’, 18’, 36’ and 55’ with Naome Guerra netting in the 21’, Rhonda Guissepi notched two in the 30’ and 81’, Anique Walker in the 8’ 67’, Diarra Simmons in the 52’ and 83’, Zoe Swift in the 76’ and Shenice Garcia in the 86’.
On a cool evening and a decent looking Larry Gomes playing surface, T&T got their opening item with a well placed right footer from Walker which left goalkeeper Kadisha Joseph hapless from atop the area. And soon after, following a comical goalmouth scramble in the six-yard, Debesette stuck home for a 2-0 advantage.
The next two goals came via the long range route with Debesette and Guerra directing their shots with precision to leave the home fans cheering.
Guissepi then met a left side cross and nailed home on the far post for a 5-0 lead on the half hour. Debesette used her head well to push T&T 6-0 ahead going into the break.
Coach Stephan De Four may have told his girls that six was not enough and Walker and company decided that they were in no mood to spare the visitors.
Simmons, another member of the 2010 squad, rammed home from close range seven minutes after the restart and three minutes later Debesette was celebrating another item with an easy finish as the Dominican girls struggled to keep up.
By then they might have lost track of the score and the absence of a working scoreboard might have been a favour to them.
The remaining goals all came in similar fashion, with simple finishes inside the penalty box by the bubbly T&T girls.
Coach De Four was expectedly satisfied with the result.
“It was a fitting scoreline and result for us tonight,” he told TTFF Media. “The girls never gave in as they continued to put away the chances even when we were comfortably ahead. We spoke about this and we ensured that we were going to put in the effort and finish the chances when they came.
This is just the start of things to come as we have further matches to play in this group and of course we know that the competition will get tougher as we progress but this is the start we had aimed for and hats off the girls tonight.”
T&T will next meet Dominica there on September 20.
Teams
Trinidad and Tobago: - 21.Sheniec David, 3.Abigail Jacob, 5.Adeka Spence, 6.Diarra Simmons, 8.Victoria Swift, 10.Marlique Asson, 11.Khadidira Debesette (15.Shenice Garcia 64th) 12.Rhonda Guiseppi, 16.Olivia Jaggernauth, 18.Naomie Guerra (7.Darian Diaz 70th), 19.Anique Walker (capt) - (13.Khadisha DeFreitas 70th).
Coach: - Stephan De Four (Trinidad & Tobago).
Dominica: - Kadisha Joseph; Royette Cuffy, Sabrina Graham, Kayanna Jno-Baptiste, Ayanna Rose, Christine Maximia (Kimberly Elie 33rd) (Tianna Walsh 57th), Jenelle Laronde, Onisha Deluge, Krista Dorival (Shelsian Seraphin 73rd), Kasika Samuel, Donisha Xavier.
Coach: - Egbert Jno-Baptiste.
Referee: Sabina Charles Kirton (St Lucia) Assistant 1: Nykola Liverpool (Guyana), Assistant II: Elfriede Hynes (Suriname).