Waldrum selects final T&T Women's Team to face the USA.
By Shaun Fuentes (TTFA).
Trinidad and Tobago Senior Women’s Team Head Coach Randy Waldrum today announced the final squad for the two International Friendlies with United States on December 6th and December 10th.
The home-based players departing Port of Spain on December 4th and will be joined by Waldrum and the overseas-based players later that day in Hawaii.
Included in the team is forward Kennya Cordner along with regulars from the previous team that participated in the World Cup qualifiers such as defender Arin King, Janine Francois, goalkeeper Kimika Forbes, Ahkeela Mollon, Khadidra Debessette, Karyn Forbes and Mariah Shade.
Waldrum spoke about the two upcoming matches, describing it as an excellent opportunity for the team to face the World champions, but he did express concern about the lack of preparations leading up to the two meeting.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity to play the reigning world champions,” Waldrum told TTFA Media on Monday.
“Top level international games such as these two are exactly what we need to prepare for the Olympic Qualifiers, and for the future growth of our team. However I’m very concerned as the preparation for these games have been very poor. The team itself has not been together so for many the first game will be the first time the players have even played together,” he added.
Looking at the composition of his selection, Waldrum said while he has included players that made up the squad from the 2015 World Cup qualifiers, he has included some new faces.
“I am bringing in some new players which I wanted to look at as far back as the World Cup Qualifiers and for different reasons was not able too. We’ll have the core of the team there with some question marks on a few such as Mariah Shade and Patrice Superville who are nursing injuries.”
Waldrum is optimistic about the team’s chances in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Final Round next February, saying he hopes this level of preparation with games such as the ones against the US can become a regular occurrence.
“As I said earlier, these are the kind of competitions we need for all of our national teams. Our preparation for the World Cup last year only included a local men’s team, a local youth boys team, and a youth girls team in Dallas. That is not the way our national teams should prepare. So these games are huge for us, not in terms of the results but simply in terms of the experience of playing top competition. I just wish we would have had time to actually train before the games with all of our players. We would have gotten so much more out of these games if we had.
Waldrum who was in Trinidad recently, will team up with fellow staff members Sharon O’Brien (Manager), Ben Waldrum (Assistant Coach), Anthony Creece (Assistant Coach), Benyam Astorga (Trainer), Claire George (Kit manager), Clayton Ince (Goalkeeper coach) and Michael Taylor (Physio).
The first of the two friendlies which is part of the US Victory tour, will be played on December 6th Aloha Stadium in Honolulu at 3 p.m. local/8 p.m. ET and will be aired on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports GO).The Second match in Texas on December 10th will kick off at 8 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPN2 and WatchESPN.
T&T Squad for USA matches.
Goalkeepers
Saundra Baron, Kimika Forbes.
Defenders
Lauryn Hutchinson, Arin King (capt), Danielle Blair, Patrice Superville, Brianna Ryce, Khadidra Debessette, Janine Francois.
Midfielders
Karyn Forbes, Nia Walcott, Ahkeela Mollon, Tasha St. Louis, Liana Hinds, Amira Walcott, Annalis Cummings, Victoria Swift, Janice Johnson.
Forwards
Kennya Cordner, Mariah Shade.