Corneal meets with regional Technical Directors
By Shaun Fuentes (TTFF)
Technical Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation Anton Corneal summed up the recently staged FIFA /CONCACAF Conference in Vancouver as a successful venture which allowed technical directors of various Caribbean nations to hold round the table discussions on the way forward for regional football.
Corneal and Even Pellerud, technical director of local women’s football, represented Trinidad and Tobago at the conference which took place from January 26-29 at which there was a post analysis of the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup hosted by Germany.
Corneal pointed out that technical and tactical reviews given by former United States captain April Heinrichs was useful and that she used the Dutch methodology similar to what the TTFF has initiated with its coach education program.
“A very important note I observed was the manner in which Ms Heinrichs’ presentation was conducted in that she used the Dutch methodology to describe all actions in the games, very similar to our philosophy in our coach education programme,” Corneal stated.
A report on the goalkeeping from the 2011 World Cup as well as the performances of Concacaf teams were delivered by Anna Noe of Belgium and Canadian Sylvie Beliveau. The Japan FA also gave a review of their World Cup winning performance and the program which led to their success.
“These analysis’ were very informative on the trends of football in the Women’s game. It showed where technique and skill was more prevalent during this World Cup than any other. The teams that dominated before on their physical presence only, were nullified by the more skillful teams,” he said.
Case studies were also given by the United States, Canada, France and Mexico.
Discussions specifically related to CONCACAF Women’s football also took place.
“The overall outcome of this conference showed us that the Caribbean countries need to work together to accomplish some of these objectives. We kept a meeting with various technical directors of the Caribbean countries and came up with a few ideas that will help our quest for development,” Corneal stated.
Some of these ideas included - Youth tournaments one year prior to the (youth) World Cup qualifying games; A CFU license similar to the UEFA “A which will be sanctioned by FIFA; The dates of the Concacaf tournaments (bearing in mind exams dates) and partnering with more advanced Member Associations.
