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Trinidad and Tobago National Under 20 Women's team suffered a 4-0 lost to Mexico at the Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez Stadium in Santo Domingo this afternoon and as a result, they were sent crashing out of the 2020 CONCACAF Championship with no hopes of qualifying for the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup hosted in Costa Rica and Panama.

However, the young Soca Princesses could very well hold their heads high as they've accomplished more than any other T&T teams did in the past couple of years. The young ladies made it to the quarterfinals and earned the right to be there by beating St Kitts & Nevis, Cayman Islands and Puerto Rico.

Judging from coach Richard Hood's selection it seemed as though he was going to take the fight to Mexico as regular starters Cayla McFarlane and Tori Paul were both on the bench, opting for more attack-minded players in Aaliyah Prince and Alexcia Ali.

Mexico, meanwhile, has been a force throughout the tournament and topped their group to get to the quarterfinals by beating Puerto Rico (2-1), Nicaragua (4-0) and Guyana (3-0).

The Mexicans, led by captain Nicole Pérez had to turn it up in the second half as T&T held their own and just when it looked as though the first-half was going to end goalless, Anette Vázquez came up big for her side and scored a 45 minute goal to send Mexico into their locker room with a 1-goal lead.

Gabriela Juárez was next to get on the scoresheet with a 56 minute item before Mexico's top-scorer Alison González plugged in her's from the penalty spot after T&T's custodian Klil Keshwar committed a foul on González herself, for her troubles, Keshwar was awarded a yellow card and Mexico had a 3-goal cushion lead.

Second-half substitute Destinee Manzo added to Mexico's tally and got her goal in the 71st minute that would seal the 4-0 win for them as they now move on to face Haiti on March 6.

Carapichaima East striker and T&T's captain Afyiah Cornwall finished the tournament with a whopping 7-goals to her name, while, second highest scorer Maria-Frances Serrant got three. Not bad for two locally based school players.

Results

Mexico 4 (Anette Vázquez 45, Gabriela Juárez 56, Alison González 67-Pen, Destinee Manzo 71) v Trinidad & Tobago 0  -  Full Match  /  Game Highlights

Dominican Republic 2 v Jamaica 1

United States 4 v Canada 0

Haiti 3 v Guyana 0

Teams

Mexico: 12.Wendy Toledo; 16.Reyna Reyes, 3.Tanna Sánchez, 4.Nicole Soto, 5.Ximena Ríos, 8.Nicole Pérez (capt), 20.Maricarmen Reyes, 11.Anette Vázquez, 13.Joseline Montoya (2.Destinee Manzo 68), 10.Alison González (14.Mariel Román 82), 9.Gabriela Juárez (7.Nayeli Díaz 57).

Unused Substitutes: 1.Zoe Aguirre; 6.Laura Parra, 19.Karla Zempoalteca, 15.Julieta Peralta, 17.Yanin Madrid, 18.Silvana Flores.

Coach: Mónica Vergara Rubio (MEX).

Trinidad & Tobago: 1.Klil Keshwar (Yellow - 67); 15.Arnelle Douglas, 4.Latifha Pascall, 5.Tsai-Anne Fernández, 11.Chrissy Mitchell, 3.Nathifa Hackshaw (12.Cayla McFarlane 60), 7.Sarah De Gannes, 9.Afiyah Cornwall (capt), 8.Maria-Frances Serrant (13.Megan Rampersad 75), 10.Alexcia Alí, 19.Aaliyah Prince.

Unused Substitutes: 18.Chelsea Ramnauth; 20.Tori Paul, 2.Roshun Williams, 6.Aaliyah Pascall, 14.Moenesa Mejias, 16.Sydni Greaves, 17.Cecile Loraine.

Coach: Richard Hood (TRI).

Referee: Sandra Benítez (SLV).

RELATED NEWS

Mexico ends dream for U-20 Women.
TTFA Media.


The dream is over but not without this country’s Under 20 Women’s footballers showing that they possessed the courage, fight and determination to pursue that dream. Perennial powerhouse Mexico pulled off a 4-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago in their quarter final fixture at Estadio Olympic Félix Sánchez in Santo Domingo at the CONCACAF Under 20 women’s championship on Wednesday evening.

T&T were able to hold off the Mexicans in the first half as they adopted a more defensive approach, switching from a usual 4-2-3-1 to a back five including three central defenders But Mexico pounced when T&T were found napping as Anette Vasquez met a pass from Gabriela Juarez to hit home just before the break. The game seemed to break T&T’s focus. Goalkeeper Kill Keshwar had two good stops in the first half as Mexico pressed for the opener.

Mexico doubled their lead in the 55th minute when Juárez made it 2-0 with a free header at the back post following an early save from the side.

Alison González was fouled by Keshwar who made a late tackle on the player, resulting in a penalty which Gonzalez converted on 67 minutes for a 3-0 lead. Substitute Destinee Manzo then made it 4-0 in the 70th on a counter attack play which punished a jaded T&T back line at that stage.

T&T’s prolific forward Afiyah Cornwall was closely marked throughout the contest and struggled to find enough room to make an impact while her teammates fought valiantly but had to little to show for it at the final whistle in terms of the scoreline. But credit they deserved for maintaining a die-hard approach and attitude through the campaign to advance to the quarter finals.

Head Coach Richard Hood, though disappointed with the exit had some encouraging words to share about his ladies.

“It was a tough game. I thought the girls gave their all and they tried their best. We attempted to frustrate the Mexicans as much as possible… defending deep. We reorganised our defence, playing three central defenders and I think that the plan worked to a point. I think conceding that goal just before the half was a bit deflating,” Hood told TTFA Media.

“But I compliment the girls on their efforts tonight and throughout the tournament. I don’t think they had anything left in them tonight following their efforts. I am pleased with the overall performance and where these girls came from in a very short time and the maturity and determination they showed to try and work towards the plan we devised for them.”

Hood said there were promising signs from this bunch indicating that there were a few senior team potentials in it.

“I think that some of these girl are definitely future national senior women players. I would say certainly Sarah De Gannes and Afiyah Cornwall are two standout players that can go on to represent our senior women’s team in the future and there are others. Of course they need to develop their skills, fitness levels and their tactical awareness and this is very much dependent on what the TTFA does from now on.

“It is up to the TTFA develop these players. The clubs can’t do it, the schools definitely can’t do it. We need to have a continuous programme with the players training at a high level and playing international games on a regular basis as well.”

The head coach said he is maintaining hopes that a programme will be implemented to continue the development of the Women’s pool.

“I am hopeful we can continue to build because we have seen what these girls were able to accomplish over a short time with the opportunities presented such as a training camp before the tournament. It is very much dependent on investment. Of course it cannot be done without a substantial investment into the programme for instance to get the foreign-based players on a more regular basis, to get international games and to have local and foreign camps,” he said.

Soca Princesses fall 4-0 to Mexico.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).


A bat­tling T&T Un­der-20 Women team bowed out of the CON­CA­CAF World Cup qual­i­fiers when Mex­i­co fired four goals past them in a 4-0 vic­to­ry of their quar­ter­fi­nal con­test on Wednes­day at the Sta­di­um Olympi­co Fe­lix Sanchez in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Goals by Anette Vazquez, Gabriela Juarez, Al­i­son Gon­za­lez and Des­ti­nee Man­zo con­fined the So­ca Princess­es to their sec­ond de­feat of the tour­na­ment.

The Mex­i­cans, who have an un­blem­ished record against their T&T coun­ter­parts, were off to a quick start, on­ly to be pre­vent­ed by dogged T&T de­fend­ing. How­ev­er, they were pre­sent­ed with a glim­mer of hope when speedy winger cap­tain Nicole Perez de­liv­ered a cross from the right side, and af­ter a weak de­fen­sive clear­ance that fell to the feet of Rey­na Reyes, she hit it wide of the post.

Six min­utes lat­er, the Mex­i­cans with an­oth­er clear-cut op­por­tu­ni­ty when Al­i­son Gon­za­lez thread­ed the ball through to Mari­car­men Reyes but with the goal at her mer­cy, she hit straight to the out­stretched arms of T&T goal­keep­er Klil Kesh­war.

T&T, play­ing a counter-at­tack­ing game, strug­gled to cre­ate chances at goal with their lone strik­er Afiyah Corn­wall fac­ing greater num­bers any­time the ball was played to her.

In­stead, the Mex­i­cans were re­ward­ed for their per­sis­tence on the stroke of half time. Anette Vazquez, play­ing a give-and-go with Gabriela Juarez, calm­ly placed the ball wide of ad­vanc­ing Kesh­war for a 1-0 half-time lead.

At the re­sump­tion, coach Richard Hood's So­ca Princess­es con­tin­ued their strug­gle against the re­lent­less Mex­i­cans, de­fend­ing stout­ly.

How­ev­er, they were bro­ken for a sec­ond time when poor mark­ing on the right-side al­lowed Reyes (Rey­na) to de­liv­er a pin-point cross to the un­marked Juarez in­side the T&T area, and she rose high to head past Kesh­war for her team's sec­ond goal in the 56th minute.

Ten min­utes lat­er the Mex­i­cans in­creased their ad­van­tage. Gon­za­lez on a break­through was hacked down by Kesh­war on her way to goal, caus­ing the ref­er­ee to point to the penal­ty spot. Gon­za­lez then picked her­self up and drilled the ball un­der the dive of the T&T cus­to­di­an for a 3-0 lead.

And de­spite the changes in struc­ture, made to the T&T de­fence for the match, it did lit­tle to pre­vent them from go­ing down by the four-goal mar­gin in the 71st minute. This time Mex­i­co with a sweep­ing counter-at­tack down the cen­tre, saw Vazquez quick­ly re­leased to the over-lap­ping Manoz on the left side. Manoz, who came on as a sec­ond-half sub­sti­tute, calm­ly beat Kesh­war with a low dri­ve in­to the far post for a 4-0 vic­to­ry.

The win for the Mex­i­cans means they will next face Haiti in the semi­fi­nals. The Haitians de­feat­ed Guyana 3-0 in their quar­ter­fi­nal con­test, while the USA thrashed Cana­da 4-0 for their semi­fi­nal berth, and the host Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic edged Ja­maica 2-1 for their place among the fi­nal four teams.