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Having previously insisted that T&T’s U-17 women would be serious contenders in the Fifa U-17 Women’s World Cup in T&T in September, technical director of women’s football in T&T Even Pellerud is now even more confident in his side. Almost a year and a half ago, the Norwegian was given the job of transforming women’s football in T&T as well as the greater and more pressing task of creating a successful side for the U-17 WWC. The 56-year-old’s challenge was to take inexperienced players and train them to challenge international teams within two years.

However, after T&T’s performance in the T&T Football Federation’s recent Four Nation Tournament, in which the U-17s finished with a 0-0 draw against Jamaica, a 2-1 loss to Mexico and a 1-1 draw with top ranked Canada, Pellerud feels that his side may have an even better chance than he previously thought. “I am much more confident now than before. I had not expected us to play even games against Mexico and Canada,” he said. “We have to put things in perspective and remember where this team was a year ago. Remember that just in November, we were outplayed by Mexico, but this time around, we should have beaten them.”

He still stressed however, that the team needed much more international match practice in order for it to be ready in the short time it had left, taking into consideration, the limitations of its attack. “There’s only one way to learn this and that is to play the big teams and if that means we will be beaten, we still need to learn from playing them,” he said. Speaking on the players that will make the final cut, Pellerud said that while he has a fairly good idea of who is going to be on the roster, there will always be a discussion on the last three or four places and the door is still open for new players. The team will resume its training today.
Even Pellerud