T&T Under-20 Women Soca Warriors will come up against host Haiti in the first match of a semifinal double-header when the Caribbean Football Union U-20 Women’s Championship continues at the Sylvio Cator Stadium, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 4 pm.
This will be followed by a clash between defending CFU champions Jamaica and Puerto Rico in the second semifinal, from which the winner will advance to Friday’s final and secure two of the three places to the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship to be held in Honduras, December 3-13.
On Monday night in its final round-robin Pool B match, the T&T U-20 women came from 2-0 down to earn a 2-2 draw with Jamaica.
With the drawn result, Jamaica ended as group winner with seven points from its three matches, two more than T&T while Curacao, which edged St Vincent and the Grenadines, 1-0 in the first match on Monday, was third with three points.
Prior to its final match, T&T was already certain of a semifinal spot as St Vincent and the Grenadines, which started the day on one point and needed a win over Curacao, fell 1-0.
The T&T and Jamaica clash began with a high tempo as both teams showed attacking intent from the opening whistle.
Jamaica had the better of the match in the early minutes when Khadija Shaw missed a sitter.
The U-20 Women Soca Warriors then found their rhythm at the midway point as they created several chances, but failed to make them count.
The young Reggae Girlz eventually opened the scoring through Shaw in the 34th minute with a shot from just inside the 18-yard box. Five minutes later, Jamaica doubled its advantage when Rena Gordon scored for a 2-0 half-time lead.
The second half went in another direction as a rejuvenated Rene Mike-captained T&T squad returned to grab two goals, which changed the course of the match.
First, Celeste Thomas cut the lead in half in the 64th minute and although Jamaica created more chances to put the game away, they missed, and lost opportunities would comeback to haunt them when Chevonne John struck the equaliser in the 76th minute for a 2-2 scoreline.
With ten minutes left in the match, T&T suffered a blow when Thomas was sent off for a second bookable offence, however the T&T women held on for the draw, and had to settle for second spot in the pool and a clash with the Haitians who crushed Bermuda 8-0 in their final match on Sunday to qualify after losing their opener to Puerto Rico, 3-1.
Commenting on the match, Spence said it was another giant performance by the T&T team which showed a lot of character to come from two goals down.
He said, “We corrected a minor tactic at the half-time interval and the girls gave everything and went for the win, but Celeste Thomas got second yellow card and we had to change our tactics again to come away with the point.”
Spence noted that his team’s last competitive match before the tournament in Haiti coming against Dominica in the first round of CFU qualifiers in July came without any warm-up matches for a two-months period, so he was very proud of the class and character shown.
The T&T coach pointed out his team was still playing enjoyable and entertaining football as he keeps telling the players that “the spectators come out to be entertained so let’s show what we are made of.”
“Presently I cannot ask for more from them. Our plan is to make it to the final phase of the tournament unbeaten and so far we have done this and now we are onto our next objective which is to qualify for the Concacaf Championships.
With regards to the suspension of Thomas and what it means for his team going into the semifinal, Spence said, “Certainly some adjustment and shifting around will be done tactically to cope with her absence, but to cope we will.”