Rajesh Latchoo, coach of T&T's Under-17 women's team, says this country's preparations for CFU phase of qualification for the 2016 Fifa Under-17 World Cup appear promising.The team is loaded with players who moved up the ranks from the team that finished third at the 2014 Concacaf Under-15 Championship in the Cayman Islands last August.
"This is basically the same team, with the exception of a few players (from last year's Under-15 team)," said Latchoo."We've kept the squad together and we've been training together since last year October with only two breaks for Christmas and Carnival. We've been training three days per week consistently."
More recently, the T&T Under-17 team topped the Under-18 division at the popular Carapichaima Youth Super League, which according to Latchoo was used to keep the players match fit.The Under-17 team will also participate in the Premier Division of the T&T Women's League (Wolf) which starts next month.
"We had a some decent challenges in a couple of the matches (at the Carapichaima Youth Super League), and we felt it was good to have some of the players from the other teams to have that opportunity to play against a national team, and at the same time, our girls were able to get consistent match practice," Latchoo said.
The CFU leg of World Cup qualification is scheduled to start in July. Latchoo will be seeking to qualify for the Concacaf final round from which three teams will qualify for the 2016 Fifa Under-17 Women's World Cup in Jordan.Damien Daniels and Denise Wickham are Latchoo's assistant coaches for the preparation phase, while Lyndelle Hoyte-Sanchez serves as manager.
The T&T Football Association (TTFA) has also started the preparation programme for this year's Concacaf Under-15 Women's Championship. The programme is being overseen by Muhammad Isa.The TTFA will prepare the women teams involved in the inaugural Concacaf Women's Football Day, scheduled for May 23.
That initiative, presented at Concacaf's "Let's Develop Women's Football" seminar in Philadelphia, last October, will potetially unite all of Concacaf's 41 member associations in a celebration of women's football throughout the region.