"For a long time we have just participated in CONCACAF tournaments. But for this World Cup qualifying tournament we're going to compete with Mexico...we are going to compete with Canada," says Trinidad and Tobago senior women's team head coach Jamaal Shabazz.
"We have always gone to these tournaments and just defended for dear life. I think, with this women's football team, you will see a Trinidad and Tobago that will force the opponents to defend as well."
Having picked up CAC Games silver medals in July, the T&T senior Soca Princesses hope to qualify for their first World Cup when they contest the 2010 CONCACAF Women's World Cup qualifying tournament, to be held from October 28-November 8 in Cancún and Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Hosts Mexico, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana will contest Group A in the 9,000-seat Estadio Beto Ávila in Cancún, while tournament favourites United States have been drawn in Group B along with Costa Rica, Haiti and Guatemala.
The eight-team competition, formerly known as the CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup, was last held in 2006 and will qualify both finalists to the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. The tournament's third-place finisher will face the fifth-place team from Europe in a home-and-away series for a World Cup spot.
The 16-team 2011 Women's World Cup will be held in nine German cities from June 26-July 17, 2011.
"In terms of technical skill and intensity, I think this is one of the better teams that we have produced. The technical level of this team is better than any senior women's team we have ever had and if we add a couple of the Under-17 players into it, I think we have a squad that can compete well," Shabazz declared.
"We are now better able to put our game together. I think now we will see a fitter team and a team with a better attitude to winning the ball back, especially further up field."
Having taken a break after the CAC Games, the senior women resumed training last week with 19 home-based players at a five-day training camp. Shabazz's squad trained from 6 a.m. most days at the Marvin Lee Stadium in Macoya and also worked out at the La Joya Gym in St Joseph.
But, he said it is also imperative that they get a couple competitive warm-up matches before the tournament. So far, they have drawn 3-3 with an over-40 Alcons team containing former good players like Anton Corneal, Dexter Skeene and Under-17 Women's head coach Even Pellerud.
"What we would need in the next week or so is more matches. Right now we are negotiating for two matches against Venezuela, who beat us in the CAC Games, and two matches against Colombia over there. We expect to go some time next week. In terms of training we have a decent level. I am satisfied where we are at, but we still have a good way to go."
The T&T squad includes several players who have just finished university in the USA and are now based at home. Among the players on the squad are captain Maylee Attin-Johnson, Tasha St Louis, Dernell Mascall, Kennya Cordner, Candice Edwards (Shorter College) and Patrice Superville (Mar Hill College). They are joined by Under-20 recruits Karen Forbes and Afyia Mathias.
Veteran goalie Nicole Mitchell has been recalled at age 35, and along with Adana Hume (Defence Force) and Julie Ann McDowell will give competition to regular number one Kamika Forbes.
"We will soon be joined by Katrina Meyer and Janine Francois from overseas. At the end of the month we will be joined by Ayanna Russell, Daniel Blair, Anastacia Prescott, and Arin King (Canada) will join us about a week before the tournament. We gave her that time because she sacrificed a lot of schooling for the Caribbean leg. Ahkeela Mollon is also oversees-based but she is not considered at the moment.
"There are five or six players in the national Under-17 team I like such as Victoria Swift, Kayla Taylor, Patrice Vincent, Linfar Jones, and the Debesette sisters. Along with some of the foreign-based like Liana Hinds, I think they could be in this squad. But, we have to consider that they compromised two years of schooling, so we have to tread carefully. We have to talk to their parents, and we will see. I can see them being ready for this level because they have the fitness, and they have the mentality to fight, and training alongside these girls will help them, and help us as well."
The team's staff is led by Shabazz, a former Guyana men's national team coach. Marlon Charles is his assistant and Vanetta Flanders is the manager. Joanne Danlall, an Englishwoman married to a Trinidadian and living down South, is assistant manager, while Steve Fredericks is the goalkeeper coach. Having just returned from completing a football-specific fitness course at the English Football Association, Coast Guard leading seaman Dexter Thomas is the trainer. And Dr Kerry Donawee (University of Trinidad & Tobago) is the team physio. Norwegians Pellerud and Marius Rouve will serve as team advisers.
Shabazz said he has taken a lot of advice from technical director Pellerud, and will apply some of the tactics used by the T&T Under-17 Women's team to his own squad.
"I am a more possession-based coach, but I was able to take some good points from coach Pellerud which I would like to add to our team, in terms of the pressing and the intensity. But, you will see much more passing from this team.
"Coach Pellerud is not a strong believer in possession-based football. He is a strong believer in pressing and intensity, and I thought the national Under-17 girls displayed that, and they held their own against good opposition...which is credit to the work that the staff has put in."