Coach Even Pellerud believes T&T's Soca Princesses gave close to their best performance in the 2-1 loss to Nigeria on Wednesday night in the Fifa Women's Under-17 World Cup. The local women held their own against the powerful Africans for most of the match but were undone by an 86th minute goal that gave the visitors three points and a guaranteed place in the quarterfinals. "What a tremendous effort we produced. I really can't fault my players. They had Nigeria - one of the best teams in the tournament, on the back foot at times," he said. "Tactically we were pretty solid, I think we did a fantastic job, they really fought Nigeria until the end but tonight the Nigerians were just too strong. I have no problem accepting the defeat."
The Princesses found themselves a goal down in the 28th minute when Francisca Ordega put Nigeria ahead. However, Liana Hinds equalised in the 36th minute, before Loveth Ayila broke the hearts of the thousands of local fans at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella with her 86th minute winner. Pellerud said there will be no change in tactics when his team faces Korea DPR, the defending champion for a place in the quarterfinals, on Sunday. "We don't plan to change our approach. We'll fight for every ball." On the Soca Princesses' defence, which was easily disarmed throughout the match, forcing goal keeper, Linfah Jones to make a number of great saves, Pellerud said, he was not unhappy. "They created more chances than I would have liked to see, and Linfah has become a big part of our back five. Let's not forget where we started. It is a long term development process. What we are doing today is to me a phenomenal effort despite the loss." he said.
He said, many of the players were still young, and have a lot to learn. Also sharing her opinion on the match was T&T captain, Lauren Schmidt, who thought it was not her team's best performance. "Honestly, there were a couple of times when we did break down, but if we are going to have a loss, the best time is in the group stages. After that you can't lose at all, so we are going to learn from it, we're going to move on and come out stronger." Schmidt said she was confident T&T can get past the Koreans. "We are ready and I think we can do it. We have more time to prepare, so we will come out stronger." Jones also agreed with Schmidt, explaining that the team did not play at its best. "Obviously we would have been more satisfied if we won. The team wasn't on point as we normally are. We are better than this, but we hope to improve that next game."
On her performance, which was outstanding despite the loss, keeping Nigeria's 11 shots on goal out, she said; "I was trying my best to help out my team, obviously it wasn't enough this game, but I did the best I could." Jones said the crowd support helped her and encouraged supporters to keep it up. "We always want support, the girls really feel it in their heart when we get that support and it makes us play better." She said she was proud of the team. "They always give their best and I guess we just have to go harder next game." Nigerian coach, Peter Dedevbo said his team will not be taking his team's clash with Chile on Sunday lightly, despite having already secured a spot in the quarter-final round. "We never take any match lightly. We will be taking that game how we took our first and second games," he said.
