Women Warriors newcomer Shani Nakhid-Schuster anticipates first 'cap'

SENIOR women’s football team newcomer Shani Nakhid-Schuster has settled in nicely with the 22-member training bunch ahead of Thursday’s Concacaf Women’s World Cup qualifying match against Nicaragua.

Nakhid-Schuster, 29, was one of seven new call-ups to the squad made by head coach Kenwyne Jones on Monday.

The New Zealand-born midfielder played for the Brooklyn College Bulldogs in New York from 2012 to 2016 and won back-to-back City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) titles in 2013 and 2014.

She is also the niece of former national men’s midfielder David Nakhid. Nakhid-Schuster relishes her first-ever national team call-up and remains hopeful to earn her debut country appearance against Nicaragua.

The match kicks off at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo from 3pm.

“It’s incredible. Almost indescribable to know that you can represent your country, have the opportunity to do so, and even more so, to represent your family, especially my mother, who’s Trinidadian.

“When you have chances like this, you have to take it. (I will give) one hundred per cent, as much as I can. I’m very much looking forward to it but the key for every team is cohesiveness and I think it comes with knowing and trusting your teammates,” she said.

The team held its first official practice match at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva on Monday against a local Under-20 team.

Striker Maya Matouk was happy to get in a first full session with the entire squad. The locally-based players however, have been training alongside Jones and his coaching staff for the past two months.

Joining them for the first time since his appointment as assistant coach last week, was ex-national winger Carlos Edwards.

Similarly, this will be Jones’ first official match as full-time head coach since he took up the position on November 25.

However, Jones served as interim coach for one month prior, and recorded solid 0-0 and 1-1 in two international friendly performances against Panama during that time.

“We’re all excited,” Matouk said. “We have a new coaching staff and it’s been working very well so far. It’s only been the first day. We had a good scrimmage against the Under-20s. We’ve been preparing a lot.

“We have a lot of new players that came from (abroad). We’ve been working very well together and we’re excited to win the game on Thursday.”

Matouk confirmed that the team’s final two training sessions, on Tuesday and Wednesday, are crucial to helping the newcomers gel with the locally-based players.

“I think since a lot of the players have come in, these last few days are going to be a lot of crunch time for us to get to know each other, playing together and really working as a team.

“We haven’t played a lot with the players who are here right now so this game is a good start for us to get to know each other on the field,” she added.

Additionally, assistant coach Edwards was pleased to return to the national set up alongside fellow 2006 World Cup teammate Jones.

“It’s good, it felt like yesterday we were still playing, celebrating and jumping up and all that. It’s always good to be back home and with my dear friend Kenwyne, to assist him.

“What I tend to do is go around, every opportunity I get, to maybe chat to the ladies ever so often. Get to know them, give them a bit of advice.

“During the training session, whoever is not starting or whoever is out injured, speak a little bit with them and get to know what they are all about. Things like that I do get to try to get into the fold and try to break the ice when it comes to getting to know everyone and fitting in,” he said.

The Nicaragua team is scheduled to arrive in Trinidad on Tuesday.

TT play their second match against Dominica on Sunday from 5pm, Turks and Caicos Islands on April 9 and Guyana, three days later. Teams have been drawn into six groups of five and will play two home and two away matches in a single round-robin format. The six group winners will advance to the final tournament.

Eight teams will play in the tournament, which is scheduled to take place from July 4-20 in Mexico.