Mascall: We paid for our mistakes; T&T U-20s crushed 12-0 by Canada

Trinidad and Tobago’s push for qualification to the Poland 2026 Fifa U-20 Women’s World Cup ended—after just three games—with a heavy defeat last night as the young Women Soca Warriors were thumped 12-0 by Canada at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva.

If anything, the lopsided score summary flattered the hosts. Canada hit the bar twice, while defenders Madison Campbell and Hackeemar Goodridge both made superb goal line clearances.

The girls in red, white and black strip never dropped their heads, as they fought to the final whistle. That they were outclassed was no surprise—Canada are ranked sixth in the world while Trinidad and Tobago are 77th.

However, the totality of Canada’s domination, coupled with the hosts’ passive resistance, were not exactly passable calling cards for the local women’s programme.

“We wanted to stay as disciplined as we could for as long as we could,” said Trinidad and Tobago Women’s Under-20 head coach Dernelle Mascall, in the post-game press conference.

Mascall employed defender Mikaela Yearwood as a midfield sweeper in a 4-1-4-1 formation, which tried to squeeze the space that Canada’s own midfield pairing of Ava Greco and playmaker Jeneva Hernandez Gray like to operate in.

The plan, Mascall explained, was to “allow them to possess the ball in front of us—the idea was not to allow them to break lines.”

There were 69 seconds on the clock when Canada had their first dangerous cross into Trinidad and Tobago’s penalty box. And, after seven minutes and 20 seconds, the two-island republic were already two goals down.

The first goal was a simple headed finish by much vaunted striker Annabelle Chukwu, off a Hernandez Gray corner kick. The second came off a free kick by attacker Kaylee Hunter, which squirmed under the body of Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Zofia Richards.

And the third goal? Well, that was something special.

Trinidad and Tobago defender Anastasia O’ Brien seemed to have loads of cover as she tracked Chukwu into the box. In retrospect, O’Brien should have done more to prevent the Canadian wonderkid from being able to turn to face her.

First, Chukwu shuffled the ball from one foot to the next—Andres Iniesta-like—to dance around O’Brien. Goodridge sprinted in to apply pressure. She got Zinedine Zidane’s pet move: the roulette or roly-poly, which saw the Canadian suddenly find an ocean of space in a crowded area.

Campbell, spotting the danger, tried to rescue her teammates. But Chukwu was too fast. Bang!

Richards barely had time to blink, as the Canadian forward’s left footed shot whizzed past her.

Chukwu was Canada’s record youth team goal scorer—an honour she took from the legendary Christine Sinclair—even before kick off. She ended last night with 34 goals from 37 matches, between under-15 and under-20 duty.

Trinidad and Tobago were just another notch on her belt.

Canada were mindful of Trinidad and Tobago’s threat on the break, coming into the game, and coach Cindy Tye had a dossier that featured captain Orielle Martin and flanker Ariana Borneo prominently, while also being wary of midfielder Gabriel Ramdeen and forward J’Elisha Alexander.

“[Trinidad and Tobago] have some great attackers: number 19 (Borneo) the right-side player who is left footed, and the number 10 (Martin) of course,” said Tye. “She is a U-17 player; what a great little player she is with a great future.”

How did Mascall plan to get the ball forward to her dangerous players?

At Trinidad and Tobago’s very first goal kick, in the second minute, Canada pushed players forward as if to press. So Campbell, on the instruction of her coach, kicked the ball long.

The T&T U-20 Women do not have a player who can kick the ball into the opposing half. And when they did manage to pick out a wide player, Canada’s double-team usually arrived before support did for the Women Warriors player on the ball.

Mascall boasted earlier in the competition about having multiple ways to attack opponents. So what was our offensive plan against Canada?

“We wanted to be a team that possessed [the ball] and be mature in our decision-making when we had the ball, and we could see where we faltered,” she said. “And again, we paid for those mistakes.”

Yes, but could you be more specific? Was the instruction to go long? Or down the sides? Or short?

“We just wanted to be a team that moves the ball and makes better decisions,” Mascall replied.

Martin got her first chance to conjure up an attack in the 12th minute, and she advanced promisingly before slipping a pass into the Canadian box that forced a corner kick.

The 16-year-old Bishop Anstey East student did not look out of her depth there. But it was a fleeting moment.

Canada had at least three scoring opportunities before they got a fourth item in the 35th minute, after Hernandez Gray skilfully created an opening for flanker Lea Larouche to convert.

The score remained at 4-0 when the halftime whistle went. And, interestingly, Trinidad and Tobago worked the ball into the midfield from a short goal kick, just before the interval.

Canada, who appeared surprised, pressured each pass but, for a brief sequence, could not nick the ball off Ramdeen and Cherina Steele.

The Canadian Under-20 Team, Tye admitted, never played together before last week. The just concluded qualifying competition, she said, was a chance for her to “evaluate” players.

In contrast, the Trinidad and Tobago players, for the most part, have been with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association’s High Performance programme since 2023.

Canada’s football structure gave Tye superior players to Mascall—but they are a team still under construction. Perhaps there were kinks that the North American coach had not addressed as yet.

Ultimately, Trinidad and Tobago were not good enough to find out. Tactically, Mascall’s troops were unable to pose any problems for them.

Tye suggested that the hosts were not helped by an injury to Ramdeen, which forced Mascall to replace her at halftime.

“She was a key player in the midfield and a good footballer,” said Tye, about Ramdeen. “That was too bad that she didn’t get to finish.”

Canada also calculated that Martin’s influence was likely to wane as fatigue set in.

“[Martin] is their transitional player but if she is running back and forth between centre backs, it’s pretty exhausting,” said Tye. “She has played a lot of minutes [in the tournament] too. We have been tracking her minutes.

“She and number 19 (Borneo) came out in the last game (against Dominica) so they got a little break—but they carry the load for that team, and they have done really well.”

Canada went on to score eight more times in the second half, with six of those goals coming from substitutes.

In the dying minutes, as Teegan Melenhorst, Kierra Blundell, and Ella Kettles continued to raid the opposing penalty area, some fans (there were just over 400 spectators at the game) openly begged Jamaican referee Odette Hamilton for the final whistle.

Mascall suggested that there were a few positives about their clash with Canada.

“This is a perfect measuring tool—when you play the giants, only then you know how good you really are,” she said. “Gone are the days when we just compete against the Caribbean teams. We set a goal to go after the giants and make our name in Concacaf again.”

She did not say exactly what the Trinidad and Tobago women’s programme felt it was doing to go after the giants. The Under-20 Team were just eliminated within three matches, and crushed by their only real opposition.

Up next is the Concacaf U-17 Women’s Qualifiers, a tournament for which the Women Soca Warriors qualified as two of the best second-place finishers.

Ten of the current Women’s National Under-20 are also members of the Under-17 squad, while the staff is virtually identical—with the main change being that Mascall and her assistant Ayana Russell swap coaching roles.

Mascall said there were many lessons learnt from the Under-20 loss that could help the Women’s National Under-17 team when they face USA in Couva on 31 March.

“They got a taste of what the real thing is like,” said Mascall. “So now I know they will be more mentally prepared, they will be more mature and we hope for a good result against the USA.”

Beyond hope, there were again few details. Does it matter?

Canada’s women football programme is a faded superpower, the know-how remains intact but the funding is no longer there to properly maximise their talents.

The United States machine does not appear to have any such problem.

For Trinidad and Tobago, the score summary did not lie. If it was a measuring tool, as Mascall suggested, the answer is obvious.

The Women Soca Warriors are outside of their weight class.

(Teams)

Trinidad and Tobago (4-1-4-1): 21.Zofia Richards (GK) (1.Zaira Aimey GK 83); 2.Jada Graham (13.Calypso Ayoung 86), 16.Madison Campbell (8.Ty’kaiya Dennis 76), 5.Anastasia O’Brien, 3.Hackeemar Goodridge; 17.Mikaela Yearwood (9.J’Eleisha Alexander 71); 19.Ariana Borneo, 12.Gabriel Ramdeen (7.Rasheda Archer 46), 6.Cherina Steele, 11.Mariah Williams; 10.Orielle Martin (captain).

Unused substitutes: 18.Kenisha Taylor (GK), 4.Soleil St Hill, 14.Sumayah Brown, 15.Sheneil Findley, 20.Natalie Penniston-John.

Coach: Dernelle Mascall.

Canada (4-2-3-1): 1.Noelle Henning (GK); 12.Ines Nourani, 5.Janet Okeke (4.Iba Oching 62), 14.Stephanie Schoeley, 20.Sienna Gibson (3.April Lantaigne 44); 6.Ava Greco (16.Juliette Perreault 46), 10.Jeneva Hernandez Gray (8.Ella Kettles 71); 2.Jadae Collin, 7.Kaylee Hunter (13.Teegan Melenhorst 62), 11.Lea Larouche; 9.Annabelle Chukwu (captain) (19.Kierra Blundell 62).

Unused substitutes: 18.Sofia Cortes-Browne (GK), 21.Olivia Busby (GK), 15.Keira Martin, 17.Natelle El Mokbel.

Coach: Cindy Tye.

Referee: Odette Hamilton (Jamaica).

Concacaf Women’s U-20 Qualifiers

(25 February)

Canada 12 (Annabelle Chukwu 9, 11, 55, Kaylee Hunter 8, Lea Larouche 35, Juliette Perreault 50, Jeneva Hernandez Gray 54, Teegan Melenhorst 70, 73, Kierra Blundell 85, 89, Ella Kettles 90+1), Trinidad and Tobago 0 at Ato Boldon Stadium;

Bermuda 1, Dominica 2 at Ato Boldon Stadium.