Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
‘Lady Jags’, is the toughest we have faced in a long time – Jamaal Shabazz
Technical Director Mark Rodrigues (right) makes a point to members of his Technical staff.
Soca Princesses played smart
Technical Director of the Trinidad and Tobago National Female team – ‘Soca Princesses’ – is of the view that Guyana’s ‘Lady Jags’ is the toughest team his side has faced in a very long time following Trinidad’s 3-0 win in the final Group F game of the Women’s Gold Cup Qualifying competition on Friday evening.
Shabazz described the encounter as a hard one for the T&T team but also complimented his charges for playing smart and being able to come out victorious.
The former GFF Technical Director who was at the helm when Guyana enjoyed its best ever rating in the FIFA Coca Cola Rankings, said the performance of the ‘Lady Jags’ was very good given the short time they have been together.
“They were the toughest team that we have played in a long time at the senior level in the Caribbean and once they keep the squad together and get some more games I think they will be one of the top teams in the Caribbean. They were very organised and they played with good discipline.”
Shabazz also shared his view on what he felt was a weak area in the Guyanese team: “I think the one weakness though is their inability to adjust but generally I thought they were a very outstanding team in this tournament.”
Having qualified for the CAC Games as the winner of the group, Shabazz said that they will return to the training field tomorrow since all their foreign based players are home so they will start some really hard training.
He pointed out that the ‘Soca Princesses’, like the ‘Lady Jags’ were not as fit as he would have liked coming into the competition, many of the players joining the team 5 days before competition started.
“Many of the players are based in North America so they did not get to join the team until four and five days before so we did not get to work on fitness as we would have liked so now that we have them for the rest of the summer we are going to spend a lot of time working on fitness.”
Commenting on the CAC Games, Shabazz is of the view that it is very important for the Caribbean in general to be able to play the Central American teams.
“They have nudged ahead of us in the last two or three years and we have got to be able to come and narrow back that gap that exist between us and the CAC Games presents that opportunity for us to be able to compete with Central America and really show that we can narrow that gap before we go into CONCACAF.”
Future of female football in the Caribbean
Shabazz, who has a wealth of experience at the Technical level, also shared his views on the future of female football in the Caribbean. He noted that there were a number of positives coming out of the two groups hosted in Trinidad over the past week.
“We’ve seen an improvement in defensive shape in all the teams, we’ve seen teams more compact, so I see a definite improvement in Caribbean football from five years ago. Barbados, St. Lucia they have shown compactness and when you look at the teams in the other group they’re also starting to show that they have a better tactical understanding.”
He accepted that fact that the Caribbean has a long way to go with regard to playing more intense noting that the Guyana/Trinidad game was played at a decent pace.
“I would have liked to see a fitter Guyana and a fitter Trinidad and Tobago team here tonight and that would have given Caribbean football a lot of justice.”
The ‘Lady Jags’ however, still stand a chance of making it to the CAC Games as the best second place team from the two groups. Group G action was set to conclude last evening at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.
The Guyanese team left for home in batches yesterday morning (Canada, USA& Guyana) and last evening. They are expected to work on personal fitness according to Technical Director Mark Rodrigues during the coming days and weeks.
It is not yet known when the final round of qualifying for the Gold Cup between the top two teams from groups F&G will take place. The top three teams from this final round which will be played on a league format will advance to the Gold Cup to join Canada, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica and Guatemala who have already qualified.
Teams already advancing to the CAC Games are hosts Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador.
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