AN 18-MEMBER Trinidad and Tobago women football team left Trinidad earlier this week for Guadalajara, Mexico where they will participate in the Pan American Games.

In Mexico, the TT women will face FIFA World Cup participants Colombia on the opening day, October 18 on the artificial surface at the two-year-old, 50,000 capacity Omnilife Stadium in Guadalajara.

Defending champion Brazil, the World Cup semi-finalist, opens against Argentina, while Canada will play Costa Rica and Mexico will face Chile.

Trinidad and Tobago will also face Mexico and Chile in Group “A” while Group “B” consists of Argentina, Brazil, Canada and Costa Rica.

The top two teams in each of the four-team groups will advance to the Semi-Finals on October 25 with the Finals (championship and bronze-medal match) two days later.

The local women are coming off a disappointing London Olympics qualifying campaign in which they failed to advance to the CONCACAF Final Round qualification series after being upstaged 1-0 by Dominican Republic in July in Santo Domingo.

Trinidad and Tobago will be coached by Richard Hood, who was at the helm of the Olympic team.

During a recent interview, Hood stated, “The preparations have been good. I’m not sure what will be the best word to describe it.

“It has been up-and-down,” he said. “Down maybe because we still haven’t had the full complement of players (for overall training sessions).”

The American-born pair of Danielle Blair and Lauryn Hutchinson were due to join the team last weekend, as well as defender Tiana Bateau (from the United States), and national Under-17 midfielder Victoria Swift.

“We’re working hard and I think they’re doing really well at the moment,” Hood said.

Revealing that the TT squad earned a spot at the Pan Am Games “by virtue of our participation in the Gold Cup last year in Mexico”, Hood pointed out, “the draw that we got looks a decent draw. It could have been worse.

“I think if we play the game that we would like to play, in terms of discipline, we can actually get some positive results.”

Asked how he is adapting to his coaching role, Hood replied, “I can’t say it’s a new role for me. It’s more or less the same thing (from coaching the Olympic team).

“Much of the same players are here, just a few of the foreign players coming in. We’ve been doing work since April/May.

“I think we have a good understanding with the players who have been here and, during that period, the local players (have) been working hard and they’ve been doing well,” added Hood. “The role for me is not different, it’s just a continuation of the process.”

He made it clear that “the strength of the team at this time will be (in) attack.

“We have a lot of dynamic, offensive players and the team is really playing well offensively. We have some work to do on the defensive end,” ended Hood.

Source: www.newsday.co.tt