TT women preparing for Gold Cup

In the Caribbean region, competition will be in four groups of four teams each in the qualification stage, which takes place in May, with the group winners advancing to a four-team final group in September, at a yet to be named venue.

And the top two teams from the final group phase will advance to the 2006 CONCACAF Women’s Gold Cup in the United States two months later.

The six-team Gold Cup will also be a feeder to the 2007 Women’s World Cup in China, with the top two teams advancing automatically while the third-placed team face an Asian team in a home-and-away play-off. At the regional phase, Trinidad and Tobago will host one of the four-team groups, from May 19-23, comprising Dominica, Grenada and St Vincent.

TT women’s coach Jamaal Shabazz has said that the team has been holding three-day-per-week training sessions at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima over the last six weeks. “We have a squad of about 15 local players in training because we have, at least, 30 of the senior players going to school in the United States,” he said.

“A couple of them would return home in early May which would complete the squad. So we’re working right now only with the ones who’re here, and we don’t have a lot of them here,” Shabazz said.

Shabazz said he was not too worried about the regional opponents.

“We know the opponents. We’re supposed to be a notch or two ahead of them,” he added. “It’s just a first step and we may use it as an opportunity to expose some younger players as well.” Shabazz also stated that the majority of players who may comprise the team are among those who form the core of the TT youth teams.