T&T's So­ca War­riors are back­ing their women coun­ter­parts to go be­yond the first round and make their mark on the up­com­ing Fi­fa Un­der-17 Women's World Cup. In 2006, Dwight Yorke led the men's team as cap­tain, to a his­toric ap­pear­ance at the Fi­fa World Cup in Ger­many. T&T was the small­est coun­try to play at a World Cup Fi­nals. The team was coached by Dutch­man Leo Been­hakker. Now cap­tain Lau­ren Schmidt and com­pa­ny un­der the guid­ance of Nor­we­gian-born Even Pellerud will be­come the first Caribbean women's team to play at any Women's World Cup and the fifth ever from Con­ca­caf out­side of USA, Cana­da, Mex­i­co and Cos­ta Ri­ca to do so. "I think it's def­i­nite­ly a priv­i­lege for such a small na­tion as T&T to have ac­com­plished these feats... first the small­est ever na­tion to play in a men's World Cup and now the first team from the Caribbean to ever par­tic­i­pate in a Women's World Cup," Pellerud said.

Cur­rent se­nior na­tion­al men's mid­field­er Den­sill Theobald, a vet­er­an of the 2006 World Cup team, is con­fi­dent that the lo­cal girls will do T&T proud come Sun­day when they kick off against Chile at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo. "I think the girls will sur­prise a lot of peo­ple. I have watched their progress from last year and I am con­fi­dent they can pull off some favourable per­for­mances and win a cou­ple of games. I am back­ing them to go past the first round," Theobald said. The Cale­do­nia AIA and for­mer Falkirk FC mid­field­er is al­so hop­ing that the T&T fans turn out in large num­bers for the com­pe­ti­tion which runs from Sep­tem­ber 5-25. "I would love for them to win it but we as a coun­try must sup­port them as best as we can. I re­mem­ber back in 2005/2006, we loved see­ing the sta­di­um full of fans and it must be the same for the girls team, they have to come out in their num­bers and back the girls.

The peo­ple must come out and sup­port the tour­na­ment on a whole," Theobald added. Joe Pub­lic ace strik­er Ker­ry Bap­tiste is al­so back­ing the girls to shine on home soil. "Yes, I think they can do well and make the coun­try proud. But the main thing is that the peo­ple come out and sup­port them. They must feel that dri­ve from the stands when they step on­to to play­ing field. It's easy for us to ex­pect the team to fail or to do well but we must play our part and show our sup­port. "From play­ers to fans, we must come on board and en­joy the tour­na­ment," Bap­tiste said. So­ca War­riors head coach Rus­sell Lat­apy is al­so wish­ing the T&T team well and is hop­ing to wit­ness some pos­i­tive re­sults and per­for­mances from Schmidt and com­pa­ny.