T&T SCORE 6-1 WIN ON OPENING DAY OF CFU QUALIFIERS
Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana both scored opening victories against St Lucia and Barbados respectively on the first day of matches in the Caribbean Football Union Gold Cup Qualifying matches at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on Monday evening.
Hosts T&T were comfortable 6-1 winners while Guyana also impressed in their 3-0 defeat of Barbados.
One on One with Carlos Edwards
Chatting with Radanfah, Jan Michael
and Clyde Leon
In the first
game of the double header, Guyana went ahead as early as the 9th minute
through Marian El Masri. Their captain Ashley Rodriguez doubled the lead
eight minutes from half time with a well taken finish. Barbados tried
to pull a goal back in the second half but to no avail and conceded a
third goal when Ashlee Savona sneaked in behind the defence to hit home
from close range.
In the second match, T&T were in control from start to finish and
didn’t take long before going ahead. Forward Candace Edwards saw her
effort go through goalkeeper Cantel John in the 12th minute. This was
after skipper Maylee Attin-Johnson and Edwards had missed efforts inside
the opening ten minutes.
Another mishap by John allowed Kenya Cordner to make good on the rebound
to send T&T 2-0 ahead in the 20th minute.
T&T continued to press and were rewarded with a third item when a
nice flowing move on the right side of the field saw Mollon whip one
over for Edwards to slap home from close up. The scores read 3-0 in
favour of T&T on 24 minutes.
It then took just seven minutes for the hosts to increase their
advantage. Cordner did all the hard work, outpacing two defenders on the
left of the box before shooting hard and low past John.
Defenders Arin King,
Ayana Russell, Anastacia Prescott and Danielle Blair made sure things
were tidy at the back for T&T.
On 56 minutes, Mollon then got among the scorers when she caught
everyone by surprise with a looping ball over from the right which
entered the far corner of the net when it appeared that she would cross
into the box for one of her awaiting teammates.
St Lucia pulled a goal back in the 60th minute as Joanne Alphonse caught
the T&T defence napping as goalkeeper Keri Myers advanced and was
beaten, allowing Alphonse to hit into an empty net.
Mollon missed a sitter in the 77th minute when she dragged her effort
wide of the right post from the six yard box and teammate Janelle Nedd’s
shot crashed off the crossbar in the 86th minute. Substitute Mariah
Shade rounded off the scoring a minute later when she got into a one on
one with John and sent the ball low and into the net for a 6-1
scoreline.
Action continues on Tuesday at Mannie Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella,
Trinidad. Puerto Rico vs Cuba 5pm, Antigua/Barbuda vs Haiti 7pm. On
Wednesday T&T faces Barbados at 7pm and Guyana takes on St Lucia at
5pm at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
With CONCACAF expanding the field of its championship from six to eight
teams - and the Caribbean's number of berths from two to three, the CFU
will take the top two finishers from each second-round qualifying group
into a final group of four from which the top three teams will qualify
for the Gold Cup.Out of this CFU tournament, the two group winners plus
the best second placed team and Puerto Rico (hosts) will qualify for the
CAC Games If Puerto Rico happens to finish in the top 3 then the other
2nd place team will qualify.
The Women's Gold Cup is scheduled for late October-early November. (May
10,2010)
