T&T Under 20 Women’s Soca Warriors face Puerto Rico in the all-important third place match when the Caribbean Football Union Under-20 Women’s Championship concludes at the Sylvio Cator Stadium, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 4 pm today.
At stake for the winner will be CFU’s third remaining spot in the Concacaf Championships alongside host Haiti and defending champions, Jamaica who were semifinal winners on Wednesday night. The Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship will be held in Honduras, December 3-13.
Playing in the feature match of the Wednesday night semifinal double-header, T&T which was without the suspended Celeste Thomas was under pressure from early on as the Haitians controlled the game and dominated possession, making it hard for their opponents to gain any momentum in the first-half.
Ten minutes before the half, Haiti took a 1-0 lead through Sabine Chandler, but minutes later, T&T almost sneak an equaliser against the run of play, but Haiti defended well, taking their lead into the halftime break. The second half saw more Haitian domination, and Nerilla Mondesir made it 2-0 in the 51st minute for the hosts after which they held on for the win to set up a final with Jamaica from 6.30 pm this afternoon.
The young Reggae Girlz began the encounter in high gear, attacking the Puerto Rican defence from all sides. The Puerto Ricans would find it hard to cope with the early game pressure, and it showed when Jamaica opened the scoring as early as the 3rd minute when Simone Wark hit home from inside box.
Puerto Rico would recover midway through the first half, but Jamaica’s defence held strong to go into the break 1-0. Puerto Rico returned for the second-half revived, creating chances and, at various stages, dominated play. But it was Jamaica which added to its tally in the 64th minute when Deneisha Blackwood for a 2-0 advantage.
Seven minutes from the final whistle, Alejandra Carrion netted to give Puerto Rico a fighting chance but the match would end 2-1 in favour of Jamaica to move within a win of repeating as champions.
RESULTS
CFU Under-20 Women’s Championship
Wednesday semifinals
Jamaica 2 (Simone Wark 3rd, Deneisha Blackwood 64th) vs Puerto Rico 1 (Alejandra Carrion 83rd).
Haiti 2 (Sabine Chandler 35th, Nerilla Mondesir 51st) vs T&T 0
REMAINING FIXTURES
Today—Third place:
T&T vs Puerto Rico, 4 pm
Final
Haiti vs Jamaica, 6.30 pm