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T&T Women go for three points in Olympic qualifying opener.
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Trinidad and Tobago’s senior women will begin their CONCACAF Final round quest to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics when they take on Guatemala in the first game of a double header  at the BBVA Compass Stadium from 5pm (7pm TT time) on Thursday.

For skipper Maylee Attin-Johnson and her teammates, the affair is a crucial one as three points will be critical in their aim to advance to the semi-final stage as one of the top two teams from the group with Canada billed as favourites to top the group. They face Guyana in the evening’s other match at 7:30pm.

T&T have spent just over a week acclimatizing to the cold conditions in Houston as head coach Richard hood and his staff put the players through an intense training camp in Houston. The camp included one game which T&T won 2-0 over the Challenge Under 18 Women’s team on Sunday.

“We know how important this first game is because the winner could potentially end up as one of the two teams to advance from the group. We will take each game on merit but starting with three points is definitely our first aim,” Hood told TTFA Media after conducting a session at the Houston Dynamo and Houston Dash sporting complex.

“We’ve had some injury concerns but I don’t expect it to hamper us. The training camp served us well and we have to give credit to Derrick Jonkins and Matthew Vasquez for the work they did to get them fit and to keep them fit in terms of injuries. The work we have gone has been good,” Hood said.

“The spirit is very good and I think they are very focused on the task at hand,” he added.

The teams were only allowed a walk through on the match field on Wednesday but all trained on adjacent fields at the Houston Dynamo/Dash training centre during the morning. At the start time of T&T’s session at midday, the Guatemalans we’re completing the final 20 minutes of their session on a field visible and located less than thirty feet from T&T’s pitch.

On Guatemala, Hood said he would be banking on T&T’s pace and athleticism to get the better of the Central Americans who T&T defeated 2-1 in the 2015 CONCACAF World Cup qualifying final round through goals by Kennya Cordner and Maylee Attin-Johnson. The current team will also bank on the experience of the likes of Arin King, Ahkeela Mollon, Kimika and Karyn Forbes, Khadidra Debesette, Janine Francois, Tasha St Louis, Mariah Shade and Attin-Johnson.

“We expect the Guatemalans to play a strong possession game. I don’t know much about their current team except for reports that I have received and from what I have been told by the players,” Hood said.

“We expect them to play the typical Central American style but we will be prepared for that . We hope to use our athleticism and our speed against them.”

Attin-Johnson was in equally positive spirits.

“We are very excited and very much optimistic. We know how important our first game is to us . We need those three points to have a chance of going through to the next round,” she said on the eve of the contest.”

Attin-Johnson said there was still a bit of pressure on the T&T team to perform on the day.

“There is a little pressure we have not played together for a while but for us we know what it will take. There are no excuses. We have to get the job done and once we execute what coach Hood wants us to do then I think we come out victorious,” Attin-Johnson said.

“They (Guatemala) are going to come out ready to punch and we just have to be able to absorb it and punch right back and be victorious.”

Looking back at the training camp, she added: “It was difficult not having all the players together at the same time but when we did get most of our players, it turned out to be a very successful camp. We have a new coach and a new system and we had a lot of emphasis on executing that system that he wants to implement,” the skipper added.

T&T will face Canada on Sunday and Guyana two days later. The top two teams in the group will advance to the semi-finals with the two finalists qualifying for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Video: - T&T Senior Women prepare in Houston for Olympic Qualifiers