US-born coach Randy Waldrum had his fourth session with the Women Soca Warriors at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva, yesterday since returning to T&T on Thursday last ahead of their Group Two Caribbean Football Union Women’s Olympic Qualifiers and Final Round series next month.
The Women Soca Warriors were due to host Group Two qualifiers against St Lucia, Antigua & Barbuda and Cayman Islands, however, the latter two have pulled out, leaving T&T and St Lucia to contest a two-leg playoff series on November 13 and 15, to be played here in T&T.
The winner of the T&T/St Lucia tie will then qualify to the four-team CFU playoffs for which Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Guyana.
At the end of that four-team tournament, which is also set for T&T from November 18-20, the top three teams will advance to the eight-team Concacaf final round event from February 10-21 in Houston, USA next year, from which the top two finishers will qualify for the 2016 Women’s Olympic Football Tournament, August 3-20,
Waldrum, who coaches the Houston Dash in the US Women’s Professional League was last in charge of the women's team which came within a win of appearing at a first ever FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada earlier this year, but fell at the last hurdle, 1-0 on aggregate to Ecuador in a continental playoff.
During his absence, the Women Soca Warriors who competed at the Pan American Games under coach Ross Russell who has since been appointed coach of Pro League champions Central FC have been under the supervision of assistant coach, Anthony Creece, a former national Olympic team midfielder and USA-based women’s coach,
During the preliminary Group One series, Puerto Rico earned nine points from three games, Haiti six , Grenada three and Aruba nil.
Puerto Rico blasted Grenada 12-0; Aruba 9-0 and edged Haiti 3-2. Haiti hammered Aruba 14-0 and Grenada 13-0 in their other matches, while Grenada blanked Aruba 2-0
In Group Three, Jamaica gained six points from two games, trouncing Dominican Republic 6-0 and Dominica 12-0 while in the other match, Dominican Republic clobbered Dominica 11-0.
And in Group Four, Guyana and Cuba ended up with four points each after they both swept aside St Kitts/Nevis (8-0) and (6-0) respectively, but Guyana had a better goal-difference than Cuba hence they advance to the final round while St Kitts/Nevis ended without a point.