US-born coach Randy Waldrum is expected to arrive in T&T in the first week of October to pick up coaching duties with the T&T Women Soca Warriors ahead of their Group Two Caribbean Football Union Women’s Olympic Qualifiers and Final Round series in November.
Providing the necessary financial support from corporate T&T comes forward, the T&T Football Association is very likely to host the Group Two qualifiers in November featuring host T&T, St Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda and Cayman Islands.
After that round-robin series, the group winner will advance to the final round four-team series which the T&TFA is hopeful of hosting as well, and from which the top three teams will advance to the eight-team Concacaf final round event from February 10-21 in Houston, USA next year.
Speaking on the weekend, T&TFA general secretary Sheldon Phillips noted that the T&TFA has been in contact with Waldrum and is awaiting confirmation of the dates when the Group Two qualifiers will be played. “We expect to confirm with CFU the final dates to host both sets of qualifiers, but coach Waldrum should be here to pick up duties by the end of the first week of October.”
Waldrum, who coaches the Houston Dash in the US Women’s Professional League, was last in charge of the women’s team which came within a win of appearing at a first ever Fifa Women’s World Cup in Canada earlier this year, but fell at the last hurdle, 1-0 on aggregate to Ecuador in a continental playoff.
Asked what kind of player personnel Waldrum, who has recently completed his season with Dash, is expected to meet on return to T&T, Phillips said all the local players called up for training and who are not nursing any injuries should be present.
Commenting on recent criticism from national player Ahkeela Mollon over the lack of attention being given to the team, low player turn out and lack of financial support, Phillips said everything was being sorted out.
“We have met with Mollon and discussed the issues she has highlighted and she has since returned to training on Thursday last and is expected to be a major player in the team once more.”
During the preliminary Group One series, Puerto Rico earned nine points from three games, Haiti six , Grenada three and Aruba nil.
Puerto Rico blasted Grenada 12-0; Aruba 9-0 and edged Haiti 3-2. Haiti hammered Aruba 14-0 and Grenada 13-0 in their other matches, while Grenada blanked Aruba 2-0
In Group Three, Jamaica gained six points from two games, trouncing Dominican Republic 6-0 and Dominica 12-0 while in the other match, Dominican Republic clobbered Dominica 11-0.
And in Group Four, Guyana and Cuba ended up with four points each after they both swept aside St Kitts/Nevis (8-0) and (6-0) respectively, but Guyana had a better goal-difference than Cuba hence they advance to the final round while St Kitts/Nevis ended without a point.
The eight-team Concacaf final round event takes place from February 10-21 in Houston, USA next year and the top two finishers will qualify for the 2016 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament that will run from Aug. 3-20 in six Brazilian cities including the host city of Rio de Janeiro.