After two days of intense preparation coupled with a winning mindset, this country’s senior women’s football team is confident and ready to face El Salvador in their final Group F match of the Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers and Women’s Championships at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain, on Friday from 6 pm.
Coach Damian Briggs and captain Kennya “Ya Ya” Cordner are united in their approach, which must end in a win for the senior women if they are to progress to the final round of the qualifiers.
Mere moments before the local footballers followed their Salvadoran counterparts onto the training pitch in Mucurapo, Briggs and Cordner expressed confidence in their game plan on Thursday.
“I think that we’ve been preparing mentally well enough because we know the task tomorrow is very hard. We’re not going out there to underestimate anybody because El Salvador is a tough team, but it is a challenge that we can overcome together,” Cordner said.
Briggs said his charges will show their opponents respect but remain confident in their own abilities. “We always have respect for the opposition in what they do, but we always have a greater belief in ourselves and what we’ve got, and how we’re going to combat what they bring. So I think for us it’s just about, again, maintaining that humility, being humble, understanding what the job at hand is, which is this game, like we’ve approached every other game, and just going into it with the same mindset that we approached the other two, wanting to win it.”
Quizzed on whether he has identified how to counter the opposition, Briggs assured, “Yeah, I’ve seen that. However, on the show tomorrow, you will see what we’re trying to do. We’ve seen their strengths and we’ve seen their kinks, and we have to get the players obviously to recognise their strengths and how we’re going to navigate that and slow them down, and how we’re going to then take advantage of the kinks that they’ve got and build on our principles, our philosophy, and our style of playing. That’s going to combat their kinks.”
The El Salvadorans worked out confidently at the stadium. Unlike T&T, they need only a draw to progress. At present, El Salvador sits at the top of the group with six points from victories against Honduras (3-0) and Barbados (13-0). The home team has four points following a comfortable 5-0 victory over the Barbadians in December at the Kensington Oval, and a come-from-behind 2-2 tie with the Hondurans in Tegucigalpa in March.
Briggs has been blocking out the noise to keep his charges focused. Last week, he named a 20-woman team that sees the return of attacker Asha James, who is among five new players called. They are Nia Hislop, the daughter of former national goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, who attends the University of Massachusetts Amherst, defender Sakiah Williams of the California State University, and midfielder Sonia Lamarre, who represents Seattle University, as well as midfielder Summer Arjoon.
T&T TEAM
Goalkeepers: 21 Akyla Walcott (Wheeling University, USA), 1 Simone Eligon (Chatham Town FC, England), 18 Malaika Dedier (UTT)
Defenders: 5 Cicely Spencer Wickham (Florida Atlantic University, USA), 22 Kaitlyn Darwent (St Joseph’s Convent/UTT), 15 Christa Waterman (Patuxent FA, USA), 6 Victoria Swift (Club Sando), 3 Javanah Moreno (Club Sando), 12 Myla Schneider (SC Rio Tinto Ferminino, Portugal), 4 Emma Schneider (SC Rio Tinto Ferminino, Portugal), 2 Sakiah Williams (California State University, USA)
Midfielders: 7 Liana Hinds (Unattached), 8 Elise Franco (Brisbane City FC, Australia), 23 Asha James (AC POS), 14 Summer Arjoon (AC POS), 20 Sonia Lamarre (Seattle University, USA)
Attackers: 11 Aaliyah Prince (AC POS), 10 Alexcia Ali (Club Sando), 17 Ariana Borneo (Ashland University, USA), 19 Kennya Cordner (Club Sando), 9 Nikita Gosine (Pleasantville Secondary/Point Fortin Pioneers), 13 Gabrielle Williams (unattached), 16 Nia Hislop (UMass, USA).
