U17 Women's World Cup: September 5-25, Trinidad and Tobago

[Vic]

Under-17 World Cup mascot is 'Trinity'

Say hello to "Trinity", the mascot for the FIFA Under-17 Women's World Cup Trinidad and Tobago 2010.

Trinity was officially unveiled yesterday on the Brian Lara Promenade near bmobile's Independence Square branch, in front of a good crowd despite the intermittent rain.

The young "Soca Princesses" were paraded at the event yesterday and cheered on by an enthusiastic crowd, before Trinity took the stage for her own introduction.

Nataki Kerr, Deputy CEO and director of marketing of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) for the World Cup, described the mascot as "representative of all the culture of Trinidad and Tobago".

The headdress is reminiscent of T&T's Amerindian heritage, and traditional head pieces of T&T Carnival. The steel pan design on Trinity's jersey, and the T&T colours of her uniform are intended to portray T&T's national spirit. On a whole, the mascot depicts a "strong, young woman" who is athletic, according to Kerr.

Yesterday several officials were there to greet the young "Soca Princesses", including Caryl Kellar, special adviser to Minister of Sport Affairs Anil Roberts and Port of Spain mayor Murchison Brown.

The new theme song for the Under-17 Women's World Cup is entitled, "Girls Can Kick Too", a collaboration featuring Terri Lyons, Devon Matthews and Dil-E-Nadan

T&T coach, Norwegian Even Pellerud, is excited over T&T's preparations for the World Cup, and the progress his team has made.

"I'm very impressed by the commitment," Pellerud told the media. "I'm very impressed by the work rate they are putting in every day, (and) there have been tactical improvements, understanding the game better, by the week."

Pellerud has described T&T's progress as "big".

"We have introduced since (their South Korean tour in) April a lot more physical training, a lot more time in the gym, a lot more weights, in a very massive way. We've found by playing South Korea and some other big teams that we need some more muscles, and we have built much more muscles now. The girls look not much bigger, but actually they're much stronger."

A number of North American-born players have joined the squad this year, and Pellerud is pleased with them, and thinks they will gel with the team nicely.

"They need a couple days and weeks to adjust to the level of competition here and the level of fitness, but they're certainly closing the gap to the home-based players, some of these foreign-based players coming in are very, very good footballers.

"The mix is very good, the team is bonding very nicely, and everything is going smoothly," he ended.

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/98158044.html

[lensois]

The U17 will be doing a 10 day camp in Santiago from July 25 to August 3, in the middle of Chile's Winter! Don't we have enough of Winters here at home? While there they will play 2 friendlies with the local squad.

Santiago winters are generally pretty mild. http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/85574.html

Not quite replicating T&T weather but far from a chilly Canadian winter!

[The Ref]

The cancellation of an American Airlines flight with some of the Canadian players traveling to Chile has caused changes in the dates of the friendlies in Santiago and will end up playing only 2 of the initial 3 games scheduled.

[The Ref]

On their first game today afternoon the Canadians u17 tied 1-1 with Chile u17. Their next game is on Sunday.

[Jeremy]

is Chile usually a good team?

[smartplayer]

is Chile usually a good team?

The last U17 team beat them 3-0. playing with 10 players in the second half in Coral Springs, FL.

[Vic]

Brazil beat them 7-0 in South American qualifying. We play Brazil.

[The Ref]

This seems to be a good account of how strong or weak is Chile U17 girls.

http://www.fifa.com/u17womensworldcup/teams/team=1915194/index.html

[Vic]

They are a good quality South American women's youth side, evidenced by their qualification (3-2-1) and 13 goals for and 11 goals against.

Brazil went through the tournament 6-0-0 with 41 goals for and 3 against.

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“The girls knew how to make the game look easy against a very organised Chilean side,” said Brazil boss Erlacher. “They made the most of their biggest strengths: quality passing and the ability to switch play. A success like this is very important for helping them build a solid career in the game.”

The host nation also netted the competition’s Fair Play award and its players featured heavily in the top scorers’ standings, with Paula and Glaucia leading the way on seven goals apiece. Thais, with five, came next, followed by Andressa, Beatriz, Ingrid and Jucinara on four. “This result was very important for our confidence levels ahead of the World Cup. We’ve proven that the future is bright for Brazil’s women’s football,” said sharpshooter Paula after the final.

[Vic]

2-0 Canada today in the second game on a pair of headers by Nicole Setterlund

Beanlands

Cantave

Simpson

Clarke

Achille

Courtnall (Kovacs)

Therien

Kovacevic (Davis)

Campbell

Setterlund

Raymer (Lawrence)

[The Ref]

The game was played on artificial turf if that means anything.

[Soccer9]

Watch out for T&T!

Their U17 team tied vs. Brazil last week in a friendly. Pellerud must be happy!

Article:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/99216484.html

[navycyr]

Watch out for T&T!

Their U17 team tied vs. Brazil last week in a friendly. Pellerud must be happy!

Article:

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/sports/99216484.html

I'm glad to see the world cup hosts presenting a competitive team. It's very good for tournament interest and soccer in general in T & T. These international competitions, especially when they are held in smaller countries, have tremendous impact for future development of the sport if the host team offers a decent performance. I wish T & T can make it further than the first round.

[Vic]

Brazil 7 - 1 Trinidad and Tobago in the second game.

- two week tour in Brazil for T&T

- Pellerud was away watching Chile for the second game

- new Brampton midfielder on T&T

- not sure how we scouted the games

The host countries best chance for a result is their opener against Chile. After that it gets more difficult.

[navycyr]

Interesting article on fifa.com site on Brazil an opponent in the same group of Canada.

http://www.fifa.com/u17womensworldcup/news/newsid=1281431.html#selecao+search+winning+blend

Brazil coach Edvaldo Erlacher is such an admirer of the abilities of his U-17 women’s team that he describes them as “the most talented players in the world.” But despite his confidence in their technical attributes, the Seleção boss is the first to admit that his side are not yet the complete package and still have ground to make up on the favourites to win next month’s FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.

“Since May 2009 we’ve been working to a very definite plan, getting the ball out to the full-backs as much as we can, hitting long balls and switching play from flank to flank,” he explains. “Brazilian women’s teams maybe haven’t used those kinds of tactics before but they’re the biggest differences we find whenever we come across European and North American opposition.”

The Brazilians will face two such rivals in the Caribbean: Group D rivals Republic of Ireland and Canada. “We’ve been focusing on those aspects in training recently, trying to improve our game,” he continues. “The big difference between this side and the youth teams we had in the past is versatility. Even so, we’re still a bit behind other teams like Germany for example, and then there are some really talented sides like Japan and Korea Republic, although they play more of a passing game, one that’s similar to ours

[navycyr]

Last article I could find about Ireland also in the same group as Canada. Interview with Jessica Gleeson, one of Ireland players.

http://www.fai.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101075:gleeson-eyes-u17-world-cup&catid=11:under-17-women&Itemid=20

We knew coming into the Germany game that is was going to be hard and when we scored and managed not to concede we were really happy with that. And then getting through the Spain game, especially in that heat, and not conceding was brilliant."

"We did a lot of defensive work (last) week and we focused on what Germany do and what Spain do when they attack so we kind of knew what to expect.

"As for Spain: we would not really be used to that more technical kind of play but again we got used to it during the game and adapted to it."

Looks like a team similar to ours, hard defenders, not that technical. I don't know about Ghana, how strong they are, but I think Ireland will be the team we will compete for second place behind Brazil.

[Vic]

The communist and African countries have a long history of success at the youth levels and not at the senior. This has often been attributed to "age-cheating" and there have been many not just rumours and suspicions but confirmed overage athletes.

In the case of the Africans it's a more understandable issue, it's not like the process in the first world and getting an "official" birth certificate on a local basis is hopelessly easy.

FIFA is currently doing testing to validate that a wrist bone-fusion MRI is an indicator of a 17yr old girl as it is for a 17yr old boy.

I'm not sure about Ghana but the Nigerians are talking about implementing their own MRI scanning to confirm age.

In the meantime it's essentially on the honour basis.

The Ghanaian women are ranked 44th in the world, sandwiched between Trinidad and Myanmar. In the last U17 tournament they tied the North Koreans who won gold.

Ghana arrives in Decatur, Illinois tomorrow beginning a month of World Cup preparation.

[The Ref]

Since we are in this W.C. will there be any TV coverage of at least our games?

[Vic]

Can't find anything but CBC has been quite progressive and will hopefully show all our games. I guess we will hear soon.

Corporate response in T&T is described as unparalleled. Many companies are buying tickets for distribution to schoolkids throughout the country.

The Caribbean dengue fever virus continues in T&T and the Caribbean but FIFA has said the tournament will not be cancelled like last year's Caribbean Games which were scheduled to be hosted in T&T.

Wednesday the latter half of the double-header in T&T is the men's team vs. Jamaica with the opener being the T&T U17 girls team playing their Senior Women. Good exposure and simulation for them.

The Nigerian first lady hosted a reception earlier this week for the returning silver medalist U20s. TomTom, the official candy of Nigeria's national teams, paid the Falconets $250 for each shot on target in the tournament ($11,250). Chump change but an interesting angle nonetheless.

[kj52]

CBC announced today during the TFC broadcast that they will be broadcasting the U17 world cup.

[Vic]

Thanks very much for passing that on.

Monday September 6 v. Ghana 7:00pm EST

Thursday September 9 v. Ireland 4:00pm EST

Monday September 13 v. Brazil 7:00pm EST

[The Ref]

That publication of Newsday about the threat of dengue outbreak in T&T seems a bit alarmist. Anybody else has heard more about it?

[Trillium]

That publication of Newsday about the threat of dengue outbreak in T&T seems a bit alarmist. Anybody else has heard more about it?

Dengue... also known as break bone fever is endemic to T&T, it can kill if you have multiple occurances, there are no pills or cure it has to run its course often 14 days of pain.

The players need to be given netting to use over beds, and high quality mosquito spray to avoid bites.

If they go to forest areas they have to wear long sleeves etc. just as you would for black fly season.

[Vic]

T&T U17's go up 1-0 but lose 2-1 to their senior women. They have 5 friendlies before the tournament - two in Venezuela and three in Miami against Germany, Ireland and South Korea (i.e. two of the best three in Europe and the best in Asia).

[The Ref]

The T&T U15 girls lost today 1-0 to Chile in the youth olympic games in Sinpapore.