(Trinidad Express) It was a repeat of November 19, 1989. A soft goal, scored in injury time by Monica Quinterros, gave Ecuador a 1-0 win over Trinidad and Tobago Tuesday night at a sold-out Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain, and the final spot in the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup at the expense of the T&T Women Soca Warriors.
In the process, the female national squad sadly emulated their male counterparts of 25 years ago when, needing just a draw to qualify for the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, the Trinidad and Tobago “Strike Squad” lost 1-0 to the United States.
And, once again, tears were shed at the stadium, with some of the players weeping as they left the field, their dream of representing Trinidad and Tobago in Canada next year being crushed by the visitors.
Dominating yesterday’s match for the most part, the host team paid the price for failing to put away a couple of good chances and the game was lost in the final minutes when Quintteros’s timely touch directed a free-kick past under-worked T&T keeper Kaimika Forbes, who raced erratically to meet the ball.
Hard-working US-born Liana Hinds still had a chance to rescue a draw for T&T, but hit wide in the dying seconds.
Attempting to qualify for its first-ever Women’s World Cup, the national team was coming off a goalless draw in the first leg in Ecuador and, once again, 90 minutes saw the teams without any goals…until the final gut-wrenching moment. For much of the second half, T&T forced the action and looked like getting the victory.
Striker Kennya Cordner almost gave the home team the perfect start to the second session when putting Ahkeela Mollon’s cross onto the crossbar in the 48th minute. The Women Warriors applied some pressure and some worries for the visitors without finding the lethal touch.
Cordner seemed to have found the breakthrough opportunity on the right in the 78th minute, but keeper Shirley Berruz brought off a good low save and later also pushed away another goal-bound Mariah Shade shot.
Earlier, Trinidad and Tobago controlled most of the first half, despite creating just the one clear chance, in the 19th minute, when Cordner headed wide Tasha St Louis’s cross from atop the six-yard box.
Ecuador chased shadows for much of the opening half, but could have scored themselves.
T&T defender Rhea Belgrave put in a last-gasp tackle to stop powerful striker Quintteros racing to goal near the half-hour mark and goalkeeper Forbes also anticipated well when blocking an attempted overhead kick from Erika Vasquez just before the half ended.
In losing, the national women failed to follow the senior men, qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
