FI­FA World Cup Qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the coun­try's se­nior women's team will be­gin Thurs­day in earnest with an in­ter­na­tion­al friend­ly clash with Pana­ma from 3.30 pm at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va.

The game will be the first of two match­es against the Cen­tral Amer­i­cans from which in­ter­im coach Ken­wyne Jones in­tends to use to pre­pare his team for next year's qual­i­fiers.

On Wednes­day, Jones who took over from Amer­i­can Con­stan­tine Kon­stin ear­li­er this week, told the me­dia he wants to see what the play­ers will have to deal with, hav­ing not played in such a long time.

He said, "They haven't played foot­ball to­geth­er for a long time, we have some peo­ple who are com­ing back to the team, some new play­ers in the squad, so what we're do­ing is de­vel­op­ing a cul­ture with­in the squad.

"These two games will give them a test to see where they are at, where we need to im­prove and al­so give us the abil­i­ty to see those new play­ers in this type of set­ting.

"Suc­cess for me, ob­vi­ous­ly with the re­cent spate of news, is to see how they de­fine them­selves as a team, the char­ac­ter­is­tics they pos­sess fac­ing set­backs, some­times off the field and what they're go­ing to face on the field. I want to see what those events will do to them and how they re­spond.

"The en­er­gy of the squad, the will­ing­ness of the squad to go out there and per­form and do the things that we're ask­ing them to do. It's been a plea­sure be­ing able to be amongst them so far, and hope­ful­ly the game to­mor­row (Thurs­day) will be of suc­cess for us," Jones said.

The na­tion­al women's team has faced a top­sy-turvy year with Welsh­man James Thomas work­ing with them for five months be­fore pulling out to take up an­oth­er job in the Unit­ed King­dom. His re­place­ment Kon­stin last­ed a few days be­fore he was re­placed by Jones.

The for­mer na­tion­al strik­er now turn coach, is a UE­FA A Li­cence hold­er but has been fit­ted in­to the po­si­tion as an in­ter­im coach un­til No­vem­ber 30, two months be­fore the T&T team kick off its Group F qual­i­fi­ca­tion which al­so in­clude re­gion­al ri­vals Guyana, Nicaragua, Do­mini­ca and the Turks and Caicos Is­lands.

Jones, how­ev­er, as­sured his com­mit­ment to the team and has called up for­mer star Ken­nya "Ya Ya" Cord­ner, among oth­ers for the pro­gramme. The IL Sand­viken play­er joins Maylee At­tin-John­son, Lau­ryn Hutchin­son, Jonelle Cato (Trinci­ty Na­tion­als) and Liana Hinds of (IBV) in the team.

Cord­ner in an in­ter­view on Wednes­day said: "I'm pret­ty much ex­cit­ed af­ter be­ing away for so long, it's a great feel­ing to come back and rep­re­sent the red, white and black. De­spite the chal­lenges that we may face, I am still hap­py to be here to give my best at the end of the day.

"I felt re­al­ly ex­cit­ed to be part of this once again be­cause I al­ways love rep­re­sent­ing the red, white and black and to be able to con­tribute along­side Maylee, Karen, Kami­ka once more is a tremen­dous feel­ing and de­spite the noise, we just want to go out there and play foot­ball."

Whether the team los­es or wins, Jones said he wants to see how the women will deal with chal­lenges.

The next match against the Pana­ma­ni­ans will take place on Mon­day at the same venue.

T&T TEAM: Kimi­ka Forbes (Un­at­tached), Tene­sha Palmer (Un­at­tached), Malai­ka Dedi­er (St Au­gus­tine FC), Col­lette Mor­gan (UTT), Rhea Bel­grave (Po­lice FC), Naimo Guer­ra (Un­at­tached), Liana Hinds (IBV), Anya De­cour­cy (Roa W), Karyn Forbes (Un­at­tached), Maylee At­tin- John­son (At­lanta Pan­thers), Lau­ryn Hutchin­son, Maya Ma­touk (Po­lice FC), Aaliyah Prince (St Au­gus­tine FC), Dene­cia Prince, Lau­relle Theodore (St Au­gus­tine FC), Vic­to­ria Swift (Club Leon), Rae­nah Camp­bell (Avantes Chalki­da WFC), Ken­nya Cord­ner (IL Sand­viken), Chel­cy Ralph (Un­at­tached), Adri­an­na Ar­joon (Un­at­tached), Janelle Mc Gee (Sacra­men­to FC), Jonelle Cato (Trinci­ty Na­tion­als), Meyah Romeo (Un­at­tached).