TT Under-17 women football coach calls for year-round programmes

JASON SPENCE, coach of the Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 women's football team, is calling for year-round programmes for the squad, who have failed to progress past the group stage of the CONCACAF Women's Under-17 Championships in the Dominican Republic.

TT were beaten 5-1 by Panama on Sunday and 4-0 by Nicaragua on Monday, and will complete their Group E campaign against Mexico on Wednesday, from 9 pm (TT time).

In an interview on the TT Football Association (TTFA) website on Tuesday, Spence spoke about the his experiences with the squad, before and during the Championships – which serves as qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup in India, as well as his hopes for the team's immediate future.

"Our players are very enthusiastic and want to learn and do well," said Spence, who is also the TT Under-20 women's team coach. "This tournament has allowed them to experience what is required physically, technically and tactically at the international level.

"I must mention that this group of players is special and I firmly believe that this is the group who will bring smiles back to our faces in youth women’s football in the next 2-4 years. They have big hearts and really want to do well. This, though, would require keeping the team together in training consistently year-round. They need stability."

According to the TT coach, "They need to stay together after this tournament in training and developing.

"A good start would be for the team to play in the WoLF (Women's League Football) tournament," he added. "While we are in these tournaments, I make it my business to have conversations with the staff of the other teams, to find out what they are doing so I can properly understand their advancement. In summary it’s all about consistent year-round programmes."

Concerning the team's dismal showing at the Under-17 Championships, Spence mentioned, "While the world faced the pandemic, and we lost two years in TT, a lot of the other countries restarted their programmes over 14-16 months ago while we really only started at the beginning of the year."

In his summary of the games against Panama and Nicaragua, Spence said, "The first two games have allowed us to really assess and measure what level our female youth football is at the moment. Definitely right now we need to focus on inserting ourselves as a top team in the Caribbean and then move on to the CONCACAF level."

Mexico are the leaders of Group E and Spence pointed out, "We are definitely hoping for a more resilient performance. We have discussed it at our session (on Tuesday) morning and made a couple adjustments. We will certainly be doing our best as we take the field to represent our country."