Sports
Roneil Walcott
Trinidad and Tobago’s under-17 women’s football team finished the DecembHER – Jewels of the Caribbean tourney on a disappointing note on December 19 when they lost 1-0 to the Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) Future Stars XI at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
In what was the last match for the team’s in the one-week invitational tournament after back-to-back losses to Jamaica and the impressive Indy Premier SC outfit, it was the SSFL XI which got the bragging rights against Ayana Russell’s team with Pleasantville Secondary’s Mikaiah Guerero getting the lone item in the 74th minute after the national under-17 unit failed to deal with a set piece. The result saw the SSFL team finishing the group third on three points, with TT bringing up the rear on zero points.
In their first game, TT were humbled 4-0 by Indy Premier at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, on December 15, before being edged 2-1 by the Jamaicans at the Sangre Grande recreation ground two days later. In the first game of the Couva double-header on December 19, Indy warmed up for their December 21 final against Jamaica by whipping the Reggae Girlz 5-0. Five different players found the target for the US-based Indy team, with Kori Brown, Olivia Jones, Isabella Moreno, Skylar Mueller and Karringtyn Wilder all scoring in the rout, which saw them jumping out to a 3-0 lead by the halfitme interval. The win took Indy’s goal tally in the under-17 division to 17, while they are yet to concede at the other end.
In the second encounter, the race for pride was on as TT’s under-17s took on the SSFL XI, which showed fight in a 5-2 loss to Jamaica before being hammered 8-0 by Indy in their second match. In the local battle, TT got a good chance before the break in the 44th minute, but Gyasi Lewis fired a right-footer wide of the mark after being picked out by a right-side cross.
With the teams going to the half goalless, attacker Sydney Pollard tried her luck from distance in the 68th minute, but her ambitious shot was just saved by goalkeeper Amara Bhagan, who then raced off her line to smother the rebound before Lewis could pounce.
The moment of truth came in the 74th minute when Guerero slapped in from close range after Kyra Yee Loy swung in a dangerous left-side corner, which wasn’t cleared by the TT defence. The corner was avoidable too, as goalkeeper Alexia Dolland opted not to gather a Jayda Herbert free kick which deflected off the TT wall just seconds before. Just two minutes after the SSFL team’s goal, Herbert went on a mazy run through midfield before seeing a close-range stab saved by Dolland.
In the end, Guerero’s goal was enough to send TT to a third straight loss in the tourney. Russell and company will definitely have some thinking and fine-tuning to do, as the national under-17 women are scheduled to kick off the first round of Concacaf qualifying towards the 2026 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup from January 24. TT have been placed in group F for the first qualifying round alongside Barbados, Curacao, El Salvador and Guadeloupe, with the group winner earning an automatic spot in the final round. Round one consists six groups of five, with the two-best second-placed teams also set to earn spots in the final round along with the group winners.
