Trinidad and Tobago Under-17 women’s football head coach Ayana Russell is expecting her players to draw inspiration from the nation’s near-miss in the 2014 Women’s World Cup campaign as they gear up for the upcoming Concacaf qualifiers.
Russell, who was a member of that 2014 squad, says the experience has fueled her passion for the game, both as a player and now as a coach, and she hopes it will ignite a similar fire in her team.
“We were one point away from qualifying for a Women’s World Cup, and when I see the state of women’s football right now, we can’t get past the first round. It’s heartbreaking,” Russell shared in a recent interview with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association's (TTFA) media.
She continued: “One of the questions that would have been asked to the group is, ‘What can you do to change women’s football?’ That’s for players, staff, and everybody involved to get that respect we had in Concacaf and the Caribbean.
“We were number one in the Caribbean when I played. That journey is something that inspires me, and I’m trying to put back that pride, joy, passion, and energy into these girls to really push them to qualify for the Under-17 World Cup.”
Trinidad and Tobago will host Belize, Honduras, and the US Virgin Islands in Group B of the first round of the Concacaf Under-17 qualifiers, set to begin at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva on January 27.
The top team in each of the six groups, along with the two best second-placed teams, will advance to the next stage, where they will join regional powerhouses Canada, Haiti, Mexico, and the United States to vie for four spots at the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco later this year.
With that in mind, Russell believes teamwork should be prioritised over individual brilliance, as she insisted that while the current squad possesses talent, cohesion will be the key to success.
“The Under-17s have been improving in every single game. For me, it’s just about taking the right steps and not skipping steps for the sake of a tournament but giving them a foundation, which I think we would have built over the last two years in the high-performance programme,” Russell shared.
“In this group, we have some special individuals, but we’re pushing teamwork. Every time we play, we play as a team; it’s really something that T&T should come on board with now. It’s a group of talented individuals, but the most special thing about them is that they’re starting to gel as a team,” she added.
The former defender revealed that the team, which finished runners-up to Jamaica in the Jewels of the Caribbean Under-20 Invitational last month, has moved past early technical struggles and is now implementing a simple, effective game model suited to their strengths.
“[Possession-based] football is for Spain and those teams who have probably been doing it since age three. We’re very athletic and a little more sound technically also. I don’t want to give away too much, but we have a very simple game model that the girls are buying into,” she noted.
That said, Russell expressed confidence in her team’s ability to adapt and execute game plans tailored to each opponent, as they will open against USVI on January 27, before tackling Belize on January 29, and close against Honduras two days later.