Despite the achievement of qualifying for the second round of the Concacaf Under-17 Women’s Championships, coach Ayanna Russell is making sure her focus on the players’ overall development is upheld.
The under-17 Soca Princesses finished Group B of the Championships in the second position behind Honduras, whom they lost to 1-0 on Friday (January 31) night at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Balmain, Couva.
It was their only loss of the tournament, having beaten the United States Virgin Islands 5-0 and then Belize 2-0, enabling their qualification for the second round as one of the best second-place finishers with six points and a goal difference of six.
Russell’s charges became the first team for T&T to have earned a qualifying berth into the second round of Concacaf Championships since 2018. Describing it as a tremendous feat, Russell has now turned her focus on the second round of competition, where the best of the Concacaf and Caribbean regions await them.
The winners of each group progressed to the second round, along with the two best second-place teams from the group stage. Amongst the winners of the other groups is Puerto Rico, claiming Group A with three wins, Panama sealing Group C, and El Salvador taking Group D. Meanwhile, groups E and F, both comprising three teams, were completed on Saturday night with Nicaragua and Costa Rica claiming the top positions.
Russell credits her charges for their display of desire and pride but admitted their performances were due mainly to the work done by the High-Performance “ Programme—”Continuity through the high-performance programme would have helped in that area, where now the girls are more experienced with tournaments and training consistently, whereas sometimes you just put together a team to go and play tournaments.”
She noted further, “The staff focused a lot on their development and not just preparing them for the tournaments, so we’ve not been skipping steps; we’re focused on checking all the boxes and picking up from where we left off throughout all the tournaments. So definitely the approach and the continuity within the program are something you can see moving us in a good direction.”
Russell’s team, despite the loss of a key player before the start of the tournament, believes that improvement in every aspect of the game is needed before the start of the second round. “Based on experience, I know it’s going to be tough because the gap has grown in women’s football for us. It would be a tough round, but we’re doing what we need to do to get the girls ready. I think the experience in itself would be something special for them, as most of them would have never played against the teams that we probably would be playing against. So I think the opportunity to be able to measure them now against that kind of opponent would be exciting,” Russell explained.
“We would have to improve in all areas, starting from goalkeeping and coming up. I thought defensively we were solid, but still, we have a lot of work to do, especially when it comes to aerial balls and spacing and decision-making. And definitely, in midfield and the final third, all the areas we have work to do, but I think it’s just as important for us as a staff to stay focused on the process and understand that yes, the goal is to qualify for the World Cup, but it’s also to develop the players in the right way,” Russell concluded.
FINAL STANDINGS
GROUP A
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*Puerto Rico*3*3*0*0*6*1*5*9
2*Bermuda*3*2*0*1*8*3*5*6
3*Cayman Islands*3*1*0*2*4*3*1*3
4*St Vincent*3*0*0*3*1*12*-11*0
GROUP B
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*Honduras*3*3*0*0*7*0*7*9
2*T&T*3*2*0*1*7*1*6*6
3*Belize*3*1*0*2*3*4*-1*3
4*USVI*3*0*0*3*0*12*-12*0
GROUP C
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*Panama*3*3*0*0*20*4*16*9
2*Cuba*3*2*0*1*9*9*0*6
3*Guyana*3*1*0*2*10*6*4*3
4*Turks &Caicos*3*0*0*3*1*21*-20*0
GROUP D
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*El Salvador*3*3*0*0*22*0*22*9
2*Guatemala*3*2*0*1*8*8*0*6
3*Curacao*3*1*0*2*6*11*-5*3
4*Anguilla*3*0*0*3*2*19*-17*0
GROUP E
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*Nicaragua*2*2*0*0*6*1*5*6
2*Jamaica*2*1*0*1*7*2*5*3
3*St Kitts/Nevis*2*0*0*2*0*10*-10*0
GROUP F
Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1*Costa Rica*2*2*0*0*10*0*10*6
2*Dominican Rep*2*1*0*1*5*3*2*3
3*Grenada*2*0*0*2*0*12*-12*0