T&T Women’s team off to USA for Futbol Internacional.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
A nineteen-member Trinidad and Tobago Senior Women’s team was scheduled to arrive in Alabama, USA on Thursday to take part in the Futbol Internacional 2007 in which they country will face the National Teams of USA and China.
The tournament will conclude April 28 with the championship match at Mobile's Baker High School stadium. The festival also features teams representing Argentina, Canada and Mexico.
The tournament is billed as Alabama’s largest football event outside of the Olympic Games and will reportedly pump more than US$2.8 million into six local economies across Alabama.
The T&T team will play under head coach Marlon Charles and includes several US and Canada based players such as TTFF’s “Player of the Year” for 2006 Ayana Russell (Rochester, New York), Aveann Douglas (Rochester , NY), Ahkeela Mollon (Columbia, South Carolina), Katrina Meyer (Nashville, Tennesse), 2005 “Player of the Year” Kennya Cordner (Atlanta, Georgia), Patrice Superville (Atlanta, Georgia), Dernelle Mascall (Mobile, Alabama), Anastasia Prescott (Mobile, Alabama), Micah Mahabirsingh (Toronto, Canada), Jenelle Nedd (Armadillo, Texas), Mauricia Nicholson (Pensacola, FL), Shurell Burton (Miami) and Afiya Castle (Atlanta, Georgia). The rest of the squad includes home-based players Kimika Forbes, Gaill-Ann Thomas, Leslie-Ann James, Tasha St Louis, Niasha Reyes and Jemilia Mathlin.
The staff also includes former national player Ricarda Nelson as manager and assistant coach Izler Browne, who attended the women’s football workshop conducted by Mary Harvey at the 2007 CFU Congress in Curacao in march, Steve Frederick (Goalkeeping coach), David Isaacs (physio/therapist) and Dexter Williams (Equipment officer).
The team arrives in Pensacola on Thursday and will then journey to Huntsville to view one of the two opening games between Canada/Mexico and USA/China. The locals will then train on Monday before taking on the USA Under 21 team on April 24 and then depart for the Tuscaloosa Sheraton Hotel before taking on China on April26. The finals of the tournament will be played on April 28.
The T&T senior team last played in a competitive tournament at the quarter finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, going down 3-0 despite a gritty showing to Mexico in Miami in November last year. They previously topped the CFU qualifying group ahead of Dominican Republic and Suriname in September, 2006.
