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Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers suffered a narrow 2-1 defeat to Mexico in their opening Group B encounter of the Concacaf Final Round of qualification towards the 2010 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup.
In the game played at the Estadio Cementos Progreso Ciudad de Guatemala, T&T started brightly and stunned their opponents by grabbing a first minute lead through Natasha St Louis.
She touched ahead what appeared to be an innocent ball out of midfield, then sprinted around Mexican central defender Alina Garciamendez and - with Garciamendez tugging on her left shoulder - finished from the middle of the penalty area on 51 seconds
But despite a courageous effort by the T&T team and its defence marshalled by Canadian-based player Arin King, the Mexicans prevailed, getting their equalizer on the stroke of half time when Charlyn Corall’s delivery from the left was headed into the corner of the net by Liliana Godoy past goalkeeper Kimika Forbes. The Mexicans then got their winner from Natalie Lagunas in the 80th minute when she collected a left side pass from Corall and made no mistake, hitting low into the right corner. Corall who has been playing for the Mexican Under 20 team since age 14, also hit the woodwork on two occasions.
T&T made a late effort to snatch an equalizer but it was not to be and they now look forward to facing the United States in their second match on Saturday.
T&T head coach Jamaal Shabazz was obviously disappointed with the result but not with his team’s effort.
“I think all the players are disappointed to have not come away with at least a point, especially after taking the lead so early and fighting so hard for long periods. We played to a plan and it worked for us but not for the entire game. I must give credit to the players for a really good effort against what was a more experienced Mexican team. Our heads may be down for a little but we will take a lot from this game and look ahead to the remainder of the tournament with a lot of interest and optimism,” Shabazz said.
The top three teams from the eight- nation tournament will advance to the Under 20 World Cup in Germany in July, 2010. (Jan 21, 2010. Photo from T&T vs Mexico match courtesy concacaf.com)
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