Soca Warriors Online
The home of Trinidad and Tobago football
The credibility of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) has taken another hit after an allegation that the beleagured football body sent invented quotes to media from national women’s team player Tasha St Louis, which congratulated the TTFA over its treatment of the national women footballers.
Not many individuals, let alone collegiate student-athletes, get the opportunity to represent one's country. For Radford women's soccer senior Jasmine Sampson, that opportunity became a reality.
Missing from the euphoria surrounding the Women Warriors was any notion of how this team of women footballers, fierce, united and impassioned, had found their way to the edge of World Cup possibility.
Former national football captain Dwight Yorke voiced his support towards the national women’s team prior to their December 2 final World Cup qualifier against Ecuador. A victory, he said, would have propelled the women’s game but with the result now history, Yorke has another message for Maylee Attin-Johnson and her teammates.
Winning is a joyful experience in almost the same way that losing provides essential lessons for the future.
The adage of goals win matches holds true regardless of dominance of ball possession. T&T clearly had the higher percentage of ball possession. However, they failed to convert any of the many chances they had to score.
EVEN before the starting whistle for Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier was blown, the Women Soca Warriors had already lost the crucial game to Ecuador, former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner has said.
“We don’t support sport. We support events.”
Brian Lewis’ comment in the context of the overwhelming turnout and the peculiar behaviour of many fans for Tuesday’s do-or-die women’s World Cup qualifier was prompted by my lamentation over the preoccupation with fete, fete, fete before, during and immediately after the 1-0 loss to Ecuador that ended the dream of the national team.
The Women Warriors need jobs.
Team captain Maylee Attin-Johnson specifically mentioned her colleague Ahkeela Mollon when she highlighted a problem facing many of the players on the national team, which failed to qualify for the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup when it lost 1-0 to Ecuador Tuesday night at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.