USA-based Jade Jones scored a goal and pro­vid­ed the oth­er as T&T's Un­der-17 girls' foot­ball team bat­tled to a 2-2 draw with host Cu­ra­cao in their open­ing match in Group F of the Con­ca­caf U-17 Women’s Cham­pi­onship at the Sta­dion Rig­naal Fran­cis­ca, Willem­stad, Cu­ra­cao on Sat­ur­day.

Af­ter a goal­less first half, Cu­ra­cao went ahead in the 53rd minute via strik­er Jace­lyn Ju­bithana.

How­ev­er, that lead on­ly last­ed six min­utes as mid­field­er Jones of FC Star Blue in the USA fired in the equalis­er for the vis­i­tors.

And with ten min­utes left in the con­test, Jones turned provider for fel­low USA-born play­er, San­ni Wil­son of Flori­da Unit­ed, to put T&T ahead for the first time on the night and with­in sight of an open­ing win.

But, it was not to be for coach Ayan­na Rus­sell and her charges as Ju­bithana then teed up Xi­ar­leah­may Mar­rtis No­cen­to for Cu­ra­cao to get back on even terms three min­utes lat­er at 2-2, af­ter which both teams failed to find a win­ner and had to set­tle for a share of the points.

Next up for the T&T girls will be Bar­ba­dos on Wednes­day, Jan­u­ary 28, al­so from 7 pm, and El Sal­vador on Sun­day, Feb­ru­ary 1, from 4 pm, all at the same venue.

The 2026 Con­ca­caf U-17 Women’s Qual­i­fiers is the sec­ond edi­tion of the event to be played un­der the cur­rent two-round for­mat, fol­low­ing its in­tro­duc­tion in 2025.

The tour­na­ment is be­ing played un­til Feb­ru­ary 2 across four venues: Nicaragua will host Group A and E, Bermu­da Group B, Cu­ra­cao Group F and C, and Aru­ba Group D.

Fol­low­ing round-robin play, the six group win­ners and the two best sec­ond-place fin­ish­ers will ad­vance to the Fi­nal Round, join­ing the four top-ranked teams in the re­gion, which re­ceived a bye, in­clu­sive of Cana­da, Mex­i­co, Puer­to Ri­co, and the USA.

T&T Un­der-17 girls squad:

​Goal­keep­ers: ​Saiya Smith (DPS­FC, USA), ​Alex­ia Dol­land (Pro Se­ries), ​Zofia Richards (Pro Se­ries)

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De­fend­ers: ​Jes­si­ca Nes­bitt (Pro Se­ries), ​Lay­la Gre­goire (Down­town Unit­ed Soc­cer Club, USA), ​Hac­k­eemar Goodridge (Trend­set­ter Hawks Acad­e­my), ​Alia Tou­s­saint (Pe­ters Fields Unit­ed), ​Mate­ja Leben (Pro Se­ries), ​Gyasi Lewis (Com­bine Ballerz)

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Mid­field­ers: ​Gi­an­na Changar (Unit­ed Fut­bol Acad­e­my, USA), ​Chelsea John (Pick­er­ing FC, Cana­da), ​Rori Git­tens (Club San­do), ​Jade Jones (FC Stars Blue, USA), ​Zye­sha Potts (Jew­els SC), ​Khloe Kir­ton (Pro Se­ries)

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At­tack­ers: ​San­ni Wil­son (Flori­da Unit­ed, USA), ​Giu­liana Mey­er (Philadel­phia Ukrain­ian Na­tion­als, USA), ​Shiyah Matthews (LA Surf, USA), ​Syd­ney Pol­lard (Pro Se­ries), ​To­rie Jean-Jacques (Pick­er­ing FC, Cana­da), ​She­ma­iah Tou­s­saint (Cox Foot­ball Acad­e­my)

Con­ca­caf Un­der-17 Girls Cham­pi­onship Round One groups

Group A: Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, Nicaragua, Be­lize, US Vir­gin Is­lands, Do­mini­ca

Group B: Pana­ma, Bermu­da, Suri­name, Bonaire

Group C: Haiti, Guatemala, Cay­man Is­lands, Saint Lu­cia, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da

Group D: Hon­duras, Ja­maica, Guyana, Saint Vin­cent and the Grenadines, Aru­ba

Group E: Cos­ta Ri­ca, Cu­ba, Grena­da, An­guil­la, British Vir­gin Is­lands

Group F: El Sal­vador, T&T, Cu­raçao, Bar­ba­dos

Re­main­ing Group F match­es:

Venue: Sta­dion Rig­naal Fran­cis­ca, Willem­stad, Cu­ra­cao:

Jan­u­ary 26: Bar­ba­dos vs El Sal­vador, 7 pm

Jan­u­ary 28: T&T vs Bar­ba­dos, 7 pm

Jan­u­ary 30:Cu­ra­cao vs El Sal­vador, 7 pm

Feb­ru­ary 1: Sal­vador, 4 pm; Cu­ra­cao vs Bar­ba­dos, 7 pm