Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Women’s Team head coach Randy Waldrum says this country will not be intimidated by the challenge of Mexico in tomorrow’s third place encounter from which the winner will advance to the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada.
Waldrum spoke on the eve of the contest after conducting a light recovery session with the team on Saturday morning in Philadelphia. This followed their defeat on penalty kicks to Costa Rica on Friday night.
The T&T players were scheduled to have an afternoon pool session and the rest of the evening off to recharge for Sunday’s encounter.
Looking back at Friday’s game, Waldrum told TTFA Media: “It’s game that neither myself or the players would tell you we think we played particularly well.
It’s game we never found our rhythm in honestly but with that said, we made some changes for the second half and we were much better. We were able to put a lot more pressure on Costa Rica. We weren’t all that creative but we played with a lot of heart and fight.”
“It’s disappointing to lose the way we did after coming back to level the game. Now the focus is to get the players reenergized and believing in themselves again for tomorrow’s game.
Mexico have been a dominant team in CONCACAF in the past but this is a different Mexico team with a lot of young players. Yes they’re good but they’re maybe not as strong as past Mexican teams and I think we can see this as a winnable game.
We can’t to come out flat like we did yesterday. We’ve got to be ready to come out there and battle for 90 minutes,” Waldrum added.
The match kicks off at 3pm at PPL Park and will be followed by the final between the United States and Mexico.
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Soca Princesses go for final automatic World Cup spot.
By BY Ian Prescott (Express).
Second Chance
Trinidad and Tobago’s women’s national football team, the “Soca Princesses,” have a second chance at claiming an automatic qualifying spot for the 2015 FIFA Women World Cup, when they battle Mexico today in the third place playoff at the 2014 Concacaf Championship from 3 p.m. in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States.
If defeated, T&T will face Ecuador next month in a two-leg playoff for a final spot at the World Cup. Both already qualified United States and Costa Rica will play tonight’s Championship final from 6 p.m.
Today, T&T will be without suspended central defender Ria Belgrave, and also need to recover from the heartbreak of their penalty kicks semi-final loss to the Costa Ricans. Their semi-final ended in a hard-fought 1-1 draw following 120 minutes of football, before Costa Rica goalkeeper Dinnia Diaz produced a great performance in the subsequent penalty shootout to win the match 3-0, following saves against T&T’s opening three kickers, captain Maylee Attin-Johnson, Lauren Hutchinson and Mariah Shade.
Meanwhile, Mexico were forced to defend for the entirety of a very hard semi-final, losing 3-0 to the Americans. The Americans also hit the post three times, and missed several easy chances, but still managed 21 shots at the Mexican goalkeeper. Mexico managed just a single shot at the USA goal.
Looking ahead to playing the Mexicans, Sweden-based midfielder Ahkeela Millon said T&T needed to own the midfield against Mexico, to be successful following the penalty kicks defeat to Cosa Rica.
“We need to own the midfield. Midfield is the engine of a team and in order to be successful at this level we need to own the midfield and reinforce our attack,” Mollon said.
Speaking of the Costa Rica loss she said: “It is really tough because we came into the game knowing we had a lot of assets, namely our speed,” Mollon added. “We did not get to use our speed and put Costa Rica under pressure.”
Costa Rica is a good team and one thing they do well is possess the midfield and that is what we needed to do to bring our attack into the game tonight. Unfortunately Costa Rica were able to dominate the midfield.”
Meanwhile T&T coach Randy Waldrum was optimistic that the Mexicans can be over come.
He told TTFA Media: “Mexico have been a dominant team in Concacaf in the past but this is a different Mexico team with a lot of young players. Yes they’re good but they’re maybe not as strong as past Mexican teams and I think we can see this as a winnable game. We can’t come out flat like we did yesterday (Friday). We’ve got to be ready to come out there and battle for 90 minutes.”