Trinidad and Tobago’s Under 17 women’s team suffered a 4-1 defeat to their Korean Republic counterparts in the second match of the three-match series at the Paju National Football Centre on Wednesday.
Following T&T’s 3-1 victory on Monday, the Koreans were keen to reverse the result and came out fired up to make things hard for the visitors from the onset. And so it turned out with T&T Head coach Even Pellerud, making no excuses for this team’s loss, adding that he expected the second outing would prove to be a harder one.
"As we expected, Korea came back strong and eager for revenge following our 3-1 win in game one. Our team had too much to cope with, including rough jet-lag issues and 2 more injured players since Monday,” Pellerud told TTFF media.
“The best team won and the result is fair. We conceded some extremely soft goals through individual errors in the first half. We then experienced a quite encouraging start of the 2nd half, with Courtney Bhadursingh scoring right off a free kick that challenged the Korean GK to panic in traffic,” he added.
This was followed by another nicely taken free-kick from same Courtney, a service from the side that Jasmin Sampson headed straight into the goal with a strong and well executed header, was it not for the fact that the lineswoman strangely called it a foul, according to Pellerud.
“The game died after this, and we lost the momentum we created. The players looked very tired and could only survive with a strong collective defensive effort.”
T&T will undergo two days of training before the final match on Saturday at the same venue.
“We hopefully will have access to all players (in camp) for that game, and we look forward to bounce back on Saturday.
“Although the majority of the players could not perform as they did on Monday, a lot of credit goes to Victoria Swift and Courtney Bhadursingh for excellent individual performances today against a very strong Korean team,” Pellerud concluded.
TTFF Special Advisor Jack Warner, in spite of the loss, said he was not disappointed.
“I am far from disappointed because expecting any team to come up trumps in two consecutive games against the champions of Asia in their own backyard is asking a whole lot.
"So far our girls have done pretty well and I am sure, more than anything else, that the experience they are gaining on this tour will prove to be of a lot more value than the results.
While we were happy with the victory in the first match, I must say that the overall benefits of the training camp will worth a lot more than whether the team loses or wins every match. I wish them the very best in Saturday’s closing encounter,” Warner added.