Funding issues delay trip
Despite a series of issues, including funding, Trinidad and Tobago senior women footballers are due to fly to Houston, Texas, this week for a training camp in which they will twice play the Mexican national women’s team.
The team was originally due to leave on July 10.
But, because of the busy “summer” vacation travel period, ticket issues determined that the team may only fly out this week in separate batches, with the first bunch possibly due out tomorrow.
“They are scheduled to leave this week,” Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) general secretary Sheldon Phillips said yesterday.
Trinidad and Tobago are preparing for 2015 World Cup qualifying , beginning with the Women’s Caribbean Cup, which they host from August 19-26. The CFU tournament provides the final four qualifiers to the eight-team CONCACAF Zone Championships, which is the final round of qualifying for the World Cup.
In Houston, the Soca Princesses will be under the direction of American Randy Waldrum, T&T’s newly-installed national head coach. Locally-based Marlon Charles is his assistant.
“The camp has to be shortened because the first date of their CFU tournament is the 20th of August,” Phillips told the Express.
“They (Soca Princesses) will not be there, obviously, for the month we had planned for. But there will still be a good chunk of time which they will be together with Randy (Waldrum). It is going to hold a great deal of value for the team.
Phillips also confirmed that Trinidad and Tobago will still play the Mexico national team twice while in Houston.