The Bermuda Women’s Olympic Football team went down in their first game in the Preliminary Competition CONCACAF Caribbean Zone – Round 1 of Group B in the Dominican Republic at the Estadio Panamericano stadium.
The Bermuda Women’s National Team took on Trinidad & Tobago going down 5 – 1, Bermuda’s lone goal came in the 25th minute off the boot of Tschana Wade.
Wade received a pass from first half substitute Teare Thomas, Wade held off her defender and calmly lobbed the ball over the advancing Trinidad & Tobago goalkeeper.
Bermuda Football Association’s Youth Director Devarr Boyles said, “The ladies performed below their standards while never giving up in extremely humid conditions.”
‘The solution for them is to continue to believe in their abilities while maintaining a winners mentality,” continued Boyles.
Boyles concluded by saying, “A special mention must go to Cheyra Bell, goalkeeper Kimmisha Perinchief, Ebonie Burgess and Waynesha Bean.
Review from Royal Gazette
Bermuda 1 - Trinidad 5
Bermuda women's national team were well beaten by Trinidad in the opening match of their 2012 Olympic qualifiers.
Tschana Wade scored the lone goal for the Islanders in the Dominican Republic where the qualifiers are being held.
Scott Morton's side face the hosts tomorrow in their second match.
Morton said: "I wouldn't say (Trinidad) were too strong for us, but our fitness was definitely a problem.
"We were more effective in the first half than the second and caused Trinidad some problems.
"The girls are still in high spirits and we're looking forward to our next game."
The winner of the group will advance to the final qualification round while the runner-up will go into a play off for the third Caribbean qualifying spot.
Bermuda's final match is against Dominica on Saturday.
Olympic women start well in CFU qualifying.
T&T Express Reports.
Trinidad and Tobago's Olympic women's team got their Caribbean Football Union qualification campaign for the 2012 Olympics off to a winning start with a comfortable 5-1 victory over Bermuda in the Dominican Republic on Tuesday.
T&T got their goals from Janine Francois, Kennya Cordner, Khadidra Debessette, Karyn Forbes and Candace Edwards. Tschana Wade scored the lone goal for Bermuda. The Bermudans trailed 2-1 at half time. T&T then took control with three goals in the second half.
Head coach Richard Hood was pleased with the opening win.
"It's a good win to start off with but the tournament is not over yet. We still have two more games to play and we want to top the group. We will definitely be looking to come away with another impressive victory in our next match," Hood said.
Bermuda head coach Scott Morton added: "I wouldn't say (Trinidad) were too strong for us, but our fitness was definitely a problem. We were more effective in the first half than the second and caused Trinidad some problems.
T&T face Dominica in their second game today and then close off the round against Dominican Republic on Saturday. The winners of the group will advance to the final qualification round while the runners-up will go into a playoff for the third Caribbean qualifying spot.
Meantime, Haiti claimed a place in the finals of CONCACAF Olympic women's qualifying, beating hosts Aruba 8-0 to earn one of the Caribbean's three berths last weekend.
Roselord Borgella scored three goals and Wisline Dolce and Roseleine Joseph got a pair each Sunday to lead Haiti, who also drew 1-1 with Cuba and beat Suriname 4-0. Joseph had Haiti's lone goal against Cuba last Friday, while Dolce had the final item against Suriname.
Both Haiti and Cuba finished atop Group A with seven points each, but Haiti advanced with a plus-12 goal difference in their three games. Cuba had a plus-3.
Haiti will be joined by the Group B winners and best runners-up from the two groups at the CONCACAF finals in Vancouver January 19-29.
Two teams will qualify from CONCACAF for next year's Olympic Games in London.
Soca Princesses whip Bermuda 5-1.
T&T Guardian Reports. Five different players were among the goals as T&T’s Soca Princesses whipped Bermuda 5-1 in their opening match of the preliminary round of the Women’s Caribbean Zone Group B of the London 2012 Olympic Football Tournament. This was at the Estadio Panamericano Stadium, Dominican Republic on Tuesday night.
The speedy Australian-based T&T striker and captain Kennya “Yaya” Cordner fired her team ahead in the eight minute while former Under-17 World Cup standout, Khadidra Debesette doubled the advantage four minutes later. Against the run of play, Bermuda pulled a goal back on the half hour mark via Tschana Wade, to trail 2-1 at the interval.
In the second-half, T&T quickly reasserted itself and added to its tally with Candace Edwards (56th), Janine Francois (58th) and Karyn Forbes (67th) all on target, to seal the easy win and go top of the table on goal-difference from the host which blanked Dominica 3-0. Johanna Santelis (25th), Yaquesi Nunez (44th) and Ana Farias (70th) were the players on target for Dominican Republic.
Today, the Soca Princesses will go after their second win when they meet Dominica from 2 pm while Dominican Republic entertains Bermuda two hours later. On Saturday, the round-robin group will end with Bermuda facing Dominica at 2 pm followed by T&T against the host in what is expected to be the group decider.
At the end of the series, the winner of the group will advance to the Concacaf Final Round qualification round to be held in Canada in January 19 -29.
Last week, Haiti won the Group A ahead of Cuba on goal-difference after both teams ended with seven points each in their round-robin series which also included Suriname and host Aruba. The Haitians ended with a plus-12 goal difference in its three games while Cuba had a plus-three.
The best runner-up from the two CFU groups will join the other teams in Canada from which two teams will qualify for next year’s Olympic Games in London. Already, Canada, the reigning Concacaf women’s champion, USA, Mexico have secured Concacaf Final Round spots while the two from Central America are still to be decided.