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Kennya Cordner and Maylee Attin-Johnson with the 2014 Women's Caribbean Cup trophy.
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October 11th, Toyota Soccer Centre, Dr Pink Field, Dallas, Texas, USA, Trinidad and Tobago Football Queens, Maylee Attin-Johnson and Kennya “YaYa” Cordner were very composed before their warm-up match, a prelude to playoffs in their campaign for the 2015 Canada Women’s Football World Cup.

Composed. A state of mind rather uncharacteristic for a team of Soca Warrior hopefuls who weren’t granted enough money for their training camp in Dallas and whose meals and board were financed through donations rendered after a social media plea made by team coach, Randy Waldrum. Indeed the two football women were relaxed and ready to kick corners and net goals even amidst a global scare of the dreaded and highly contagious Ebola which actually claimed the life of a man in a Dallas hospital some days before the T&T Soca Warrior Princesses arrived in the state.

“We good, we ready to play hard and claim our rightful spot. Imagine, I have been playing national football for more than 20 years now (junior and senior levels) but this time feels different. Somehow I feel that this time we will qualify for the world cup. This is our golden chance!” said Cordner from Dallas in a phone interview. She seemed so confident and at ease, not antsy and self-conscious as she was in her grand photo shoot with photographer Kerron Riley and stylist Shenelle Escayg a few weeks before her departure to camp.

“Lorraine, that day I was out of sorts. I am not fond of the glamour scene. Everybody who knows YaYa knows that she is a tomboy who loves ball and everything else after that. I love to dress up but the posing thing just isn’t me. I like to pose and flip when I score a goal though…look out for the photo-ready antics after I score against USA next Wednesday at Sporting Park, Kansas City!”- declared the Charlotteville-born professional footballer who is known internationally in club and country football for her blistering goals and signature celebratory flips after scoring.

Attin-Johnson on the other hand was a different kind of calm pre-practice game. The T&T Women’s Football captain was neither distracted by a probable world epidemic nor perturbed by her team’s financial predicament. The former manager of the CONCACAF T&T Under 20 Girls Football Team was distracted by the game.

The responsibility to steer her team towards their debut world cup showing, the former Cumberland University NAIA All American select displayed the same pensive calm she did for the photo shoot. Unlike Cordner, she was familiar with the cameras; in fact she had her fill of press conferences pre-Dallas training camp.

“I am confident that my team will perform. We just have to focus, focus, focus and let God do his part. We are hard workers and we have a nice mix of talent, skill and experience,” the Cocorite-born US and Europe acclaimed Women’s Football Club player assured me. The two sportswomen who are stalwarts on the T&T ensemble plying their boots in the frontal attack were very confident; two different personalities but with a common goal to score.

And so, after our prelim talks, I decided that Cordner and Attin-Johnson were ambassadresses of our twin island republic whom I had to get to know better. Who were they on and off the field? What are their backgrounds? Can the T&T Soca Princesses capture a spot at the 2015 Canada Women’s Football World Cup?

The days which followed- the adrenaline pumping CONCACAF Women’s Final Round Fifa World Cup 2015 qualifiers... began with the opener against host USA at Sporting Park, Kansas City- I watched the game which ended in a 1-0 USA win. Impressive- as USA is the number one ranked team in the world and also courtesy, the strong T&T outfit with notable goalkeeper, Kimika Forbes, the most outstanding player in the game.

Then on October 17 it was Haiti at Bridgeview, Illinois, the score, 1-0 in favour of T&T. “Wayss, look at skill. I didn’t know woman could play so. Dem woman and dem is boss. Wait is ah spanner I just see dey?” a man cried while watching the game at a bar in Central. I was in the company football converts (men who were now convinced that women can kick ball too). Upon the heels came Guatemala (a 2-1 T&T win), Costa Rica (loss via penalty kicks) and Mexico (4-2 T&T win). Atttin-Johson and Cordner as well as the rest of the T&T cadre may not have won all their games but they won the hearts of supporters home and away.

The last Ecuador game of the round-robin playoffs at Robert F Kennedy Memorial Stadium, Washington DC proved to be the biggest challenge however even after a short training stint in Mexico City. And on match day the Trini female ballers blazed again. “Will Cordner continue on her scoring crusade like the last games? She is on the ball, getting, closer…Oh no, the Ecuadorian defence stops it!”- said the commentator as if he was a new YaYa supporter. “And there goes Attin-Johnson. She is a strong one, they can’t bring her down and …oh unlucky!”

The game ended nil-nil. I tuned into the game with my footballer compatriots, Nelle, Tamy, Kelli and Carissa. We were bittersweet. T&T still had a chance of qualifying though, through a return leg in Trinidad against Ecuador on December 2. This game will be judgement day in T&T’s bid for the world cup ticket.

November 14, two weeks before “judgement day”… I am chatting lightly with both Cordner and Attin-Johnson after their stately return to their home ground. We discuss their team’s successes and the great efforts of the entire cast from goalkeeper Forbes to outstanding charges, Akeela Moulon, Tasha St Louis, Arin Fraser to coach Randy Wadrum and technical team and many more. Their bios were on the radar during their US campaign so I am well aware of their collegiate exploits – Cordner’s stints with Seattle Rain and Newport FC (coaching) and Attiin-Johnson’s prolific university football tenure at Kennesaw State and Cumberland Universities to name a few.

Now it is time for their off field back story. Says Attin-Johnson: “I am from Niles Street, Cocorite. I am the only girl with four brothers. My area is not a play in the park. In the midst of great love in the street I have seen drug pushers and heard gunshots but I have never let these ‘bad egg’ moments stop my success.

I always loved football; playing with neighbours and my brothers was my joy and so my mother inspired me to make my dream a reality (although she cried when I boarded my first flight for US college!),” informs the Sports Management graduate. I learn that the 28-year-old woman had many hurts which she turned into positives through football.

“One of my brothers had a clash with the law when I was younger, it brought my mother great pain. Looking at her agony I wanted to make her proud and erase the pain. Football was my avenue of change; my coaches helped especially former Women’s National coach, Jamal Shabazz,” explains the former player with the US Atlanta Silverbacks team.

The gear is now shifted to Cordner, the Charlotteville skills queen who grew up with her grandmother and was a Jane of all trades including spear fishing and lobster hunting. When her grandmother died and she moved to Signal Hill, her transition was rough but football put the purpose into her humble existence.

“I was never rich. I came from humble beginnings. Beginnings where football was not a sport but a street essential... I remember playing football with my fellow villagers in the country road and winning school races and cricket matches. Football was my pet sport though. I started playing at age ten with coach Bertille St Clair.

Then I came to Trinidad and the rest was history. Today it is my passion. I eat sleep and breathe football. It was my ticket to a better life and it can be the same for other girls,” declares the 26-year-old. So outstanding was her performance for the recent world cup playoffs, that she was named one of the players for the tournament’s All Star Select Team.

The final moments of the “judgement day interview” we discuss their hungry anticipation for the Ecuadorian clash and their insistence that the nation support a one-time moment in history. In the wake of one of the biggest instants in their career and the frenzied anticipation of fans, Attin-Johnson and Cordner are still quite composed. I for one, am very excited… however I must keep calm, the T&T Female Soca Warriors will create history…just wait and see!