Trinidad & Tobago (pictured) has split its opening two games in the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship. (Photo: Mexsport)
BRIDGEVIEW, Illinois – There was plenty for Randy Waldrum to find fault with, but the Trinidad & Tobago head coach’s postgame message was more about the larger picture after a somewhat uneven 1-0 win over Haiti in the 2014 CONCACAF Women’s Championship on Friday at Toyota Park.
“If we won and got the result in a beautiful display, the three points are still the three points,” Waldrum said. “We got what we needed out of this game. We’ll have a day or two to regroup and reorganize the team and get prepared for the next game.”
The victory moves the Soca Princesses a step closer to clinching a semifinal berth and that’s the most important thing, according to Waldrum, who is also the head coach of the Houston Dash in the National Women’s Soccer League.
“I’m not happy about the performance, but I’m happy that we got three points and did what we had to do to get the result,” he commented.
Goalkeeper Kimika Forbes, a standout in a 1-0 loss to the United States, was sent off in the 66th minute after it appeared she hit into a Haitian player in the ground inside the Trinidadian box during a stoppage in play.
“I thought we were still capable of keeping the ball, even with 10,” Waldrum noted. “I just felt like we weren’t getting the work out of a few players and we kept making silly mistakes and silly fouls that allowed them to dump balls into our penalty area.”
Waldrum believes there was an understandable physical and emotional letdown following that hard-fought 1-0 loss to the United States in the opening match of the Group Stage.
“Coming off the great performance we had against the U.S., mentally and physically they worked so hard, it’s probably not a surprise we had a little bit of a letdown tonight,” Waldrum said. “I think we made things harder on ourselves than we needed to.”
Still, Waldrum was quick to praise the Soca Princesses thirst for knowledge and work rate on the training ground during the tournament.
“They’ve been great in receiving the information and asking questions, trying to learn and get better at it,” the 58-year-old expressed. “I think one of the things is, they’re enjoying the information.”
Trinidad could be on a collision course with Costa Rica, the first team to clinch a semifinal berth following a 2-1 win over Jamaica. Waldrum, though, isn’t about to look past Guatemala in the final Group Stage match on Monday in Washington, D.C.
“It looked like they were very athletic, fit and quick. I know a couple of players caught my eye,” Waldrum said of the Ticas. “We’ve got another game we’ve got to get a result in before we start looking too far ahead to Costa Rica.”
