Trinidad & Tobago’s senior women footballers dug deep to secure 3-2 victory over Guatemala in a warm-up encounter at the Estadio Revolucion in Guatemala City on Saturday.
A double from Kennya Cordner and one from Patrice Superville did the job for T&T which went into the game minus six of its players who were suffering from food poisoning including two players also out after contracting dengue fever. T&T assistant manager Joanne Daniel was forced to put on the uniform to make up a T&T 14-player squad for the encounter.
“It was maybe one of the more testing international matches for our women’s team. We came to Guatemala to prepare for the upcoming Gold Cup and we knew it could always be difficult away from home but this turned out to be a lot more than we expected. A lot of credit must go out to the players and staff who dug very deep to not only achieve the victory but to ensure that we were able to field a team out there on the evening,” Shabazz told TTFF Media.
“We are monitoring the players who are recovering at the moment and we do hope to have larger numbers available for the next match. This second game is again expected to be a keenly contested warm up before we head to Mexico,” he added.
Already hampered by a shortage of players, it didn’t get any better for the visitors when Guatemala seized a 1-0 lead in the 15th minute through free kick strike by Katie Ramos but the Senior “Soca Princesses “ battled back in fine style, grabbing the equalizer five minutes later through Cordner. She converted a penalty after Candace Edwards had been taken down by Ramos.
The game continued at a torrid pace especially in midfield with Cinthiya Lopez and Gladys Suriano of Guatemala and Dernelle Mascall and Tasha St. Louis battling it out.
The teams went into the interval 1-1 but it was T&T that was faster to the ball at the resumption.
On 50 minutes Cordner exchanged well with skipper Maylee Attin-Johnson on top the box, before letting loose a blistering left foot drive past Guatemalan goalkeeper Maricruz Mendez, to push T&T ahead 2-1. And three minutes later T&T pressed home the advantage with overlapping right back Superville making it 3-1, lobbing the ball into the net after spotting goalkeeper Mendez off her line.
T&T had chances to increase the lead Cordner kicking over bar after being put through by St. Louis with only the Guatemalan keeper to beat. Then Mendez came up with big saves from shots off Mascall and Attin-Johnson.
Guatemala pulled one back in the 80th minute through striker Maria Monterroso in controversial fashion. Goalkeeper Kimika Forbes was floored after a clash in the air with Daniela Vasconcelos but Assistant Referee Pablo Ramirez raised flag went unnoticed by Referee Luis Hernandez leaving the alert Monterroso to tap into an open goal.
Despite protests from the T&T players and Shabazz, referee Hernandez allowed the goal to stand. This made it 3-2 and gave new life to the Guatemalan attack. Forbes had to be substituted but veteran keeper Nicole Mitchell along with some stout defending from Arin King and Katrina Meyer saw T&T hold off the invigorated Guatemalan attack to the final whistle, earning a deserved 3-2 victory.
Both teams will meet again today (Monday) at the Estadio Revolucion from 5pm local time. T&T will face Canada in their first Gold Cup (World Cup qualifying encounter) on October 29 in Mexico and are also grouped with the hosts and Guyana.
Line Ups
Trinidad & Tobago: Kimika Forbes, Patrice Superville, Rhea Belgrave, Arin King, Daniel Blair, Tasha St. Louis, Dernelle Mascall, Maylee Attin-Johnson (capt), Karyn Forbes, Candace Edwards and Kennya Cordner.
Subs – Katrina Meyer for Candace Edwards, Natasha St. Louis for Patrice Superville. Nicole Mitchell for Kimika Forbes and Joanne Daniel for Rhea Belgrave.