T&T Under-20 national women’s team will be confident of clinching a semifinal spot from Group B of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s U-20 Championship when it comes up against St Vincent and the Grenadines at the Stade Sylvio Cator, Port-au-Prince, Haiti from 4 pm today.
Two hours later, defending champion Jamaica will also fancy its chances of securing a spot in the tournament’s last-four when it meets Curacao.
Currently, T&T and Jamaica sit at the top of the four-team table with three points each after winning their opening matches on Thursday night, by similar 4-1 margins over Curacao and St Vincent and the Grenadines, respectively,
For the Jason Spence-coached T&T women, Tsainne Leander scored in each half in its come-from-behind 4-1 win on Thursday.
Winners of their first round three-team pool with wins over St Vincent and The Grenadines (6-0) and Dominica (2-0) in July, the Women Soca Warriors suffered an early set-back when Curacao which booked its placed in the finals as runner-up to Puerto Rico in Group One took a second minute lead through Ketsiah Wahr with a long-range shot that caught T&T goalkeeper Rebecca Almandoz off her line.
Curaçao would then defend throughout first half, frustrating the Women Soca Warriors until eight minutes from the half-time whistle when Leander, who scored both goals in the first round defeat of Dominica, got T&T level.
Th second-half was a different story as the Rene Mike-captained T&T women displayed cool heads and carved out three goals in just five minutes.
First, Leander scored in the 48th minute to put her team ahead 2-1 before Maya Matouk and debutant Kedia Johnson added items in the 52nd and 53rd minutes for a 4-1 lead, which T&T held until the final whistle.
Spence credited his team for their efforts, particularly their ability to remain composed and orchestrate a comeback following the early goal scored by Curacao.
“Overall it was a great team effort. Curacao got the very early goal and that was a bit of a setback but we never lost our cool and we kept our shape and composure.
“The players dug deep and once we leveled the scores we were able to show our class and surge ahead early in the second half. I think it was a good start for us result wise but we will work on a few areas before going into our remaining matches in the group.”
In the night’s second match, Jamaica defeated St Vincent and the Grenadines by a similar 4-1 margin led by a hat-trick from Khadija Shaw.
On Wednesday in Group A, Aaliyah Nolan got the lone goal as Bermuda edging Puerto Rico, which came up against host Haiti, last night.
Results
Group A: Wednesday
Bermuda 1 (Aaliyah Nolan 29th) vs Puerto Rico 0
Group B: Thursday
T&T 4 (Tsainne Leander 37th, 48th, Maya Matouk 52nd, Kedie Johnson 53rd) vs Curacao 1 (Ketsiah Wahr 2nd).
Jamaica 4 (Khadija Shaw 15th, 46th, 52nd, Rasha Roberts 70th) vs SVG 1 (Konya Plummer o.g 29th