Head Coach Richard Hood announced his final Trinidad and Tobago Women’s Under 20 squad that will contest the CONCACAF U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifiers in Dominican Republic later this month.
The tournament will be held in the Dominican Republic between 22 February and 8 March 2020
The final tournament is expanded from eight to 20 teams, using the same format as the 2019 CONCACAF U-17 Championship. The top two teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2020 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica and Panama as the CONCACAF representatives, besides Costa Rica and Panama who automatically qualified as co-hosts.
T&T are in Group F with Haiti, St Kitt’s Nevis, Cayman Islands. They face St Kitts/Nevis in their opening match on February 22nd Estadio Panamericano, San Cristóbal. The top three teams from the group will advance to the knockout stage. T&T plays Cayman Islands on February 25th and Haiti on February 27th.
The team is scheduled to depart for Santo Domingo on Tuesday for a pre-tournament training camp where several of the North American based players will join the rest of the contingent.
Head Coach Hood said he was optimistic of the team’s chances of advancing into the knockout phase.
“The girls have been working hard and the program has been intensive. We had an opportunity to assess them and what they are capable of. I think we have a nice bunch of players when you add the foreign-based players to the group,” Hood told TTFA Media on Friday.
“We have what I believe would be a very exciting offensive team. Defensively we would have some work to do because we have four defensive players here and another four added to the group so it’s about finding the right combinations as we get out there going into the tournament. That would be my big concern going forward,” he added.
The T&T head coach stressed on the importance of the training camp away from home soil before the tournament.
“The training camp is critical. This is the first time we have been afforded this kind of camp before a tournament since I have been involved in women’s football on the international stage. It gives us an opportunity to really prepare well, assess where we are physically, tactically and technically. We have three games before the tournament as well so it’s beautiful and an ideal situation for us,” he said.
Looking back at the preparations which commenced in December, he added, “It was difficult from the point of view where we met a bunch where the physical levels were really low. We had to take our time as well because we had concerns about injury and some players were lacking from a technical standpoint as well. But I am seeing a lot of improvement physically and technically and I think the players are having a better understanding of how we want to play and the style of play we want to implement. We are working on this on a daily basis.
T&T U-20 Final Squad
Goalkeepers
K’lil Keshwar/St Francis College
Chelsea Ramnauth/ Fyzabad Secondary
Defenders
Shalisha King/Alcorn State
Tsai-Anne Fernandez/ Pleasantville Secondary.
Arnelle Douglas/Brock University
Sydney Boisselle/York University
Lathifa Pascall/Pleasantville Secondary
Nathifa Hackshaw/Rangers FC
Roshun Williams/Waterloo Inst.
Midfielders
Sarah De Gannes/Internazionale
Megan Rampersad/Wellington Wave
Aaliyah Pascall/Pleasantville Secondary
Chrissy Mitchell/Mayaro Secondary
Maria Frances-Serrant/Diego Martin Central
Sydni Greaves/Cedar Stars Monmouth Longwood Uni.
Forwards
Cayla McFarlane/Polytechnic School
Tori Paul/Charlotte Independence
Aaliyah Prince/North Texas Community College
Afiyah Cornwall/Waterloo Inst.
Alexia Ali/Pleasantville Secondary
Head Coach Hood talks about Final U-20 Women's Squad for Concacaf qualifiers