TRINIDAD and Tobago’s Under-17 Girls football team will travel to Panama City on Tuesday to play three warm-up matches from July 23 to 7.
This was confirmed by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association on Saturday following discussions with the Panama Football Federation. The matches will replace the friendlies in Trinidad between the two teams which were cancelled.
This was due to the inability to secure a flight out of Panama City for the visitors.
The matches in Panama will be played on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
Both T&T and Panama are preparing for upcoming CONCACAF matches and T&T team coach Stefan Defour was excited when notified of the upcoming competitive training camp in the Central American country.
“This is good news for us because the girls were looking forward to the two matches (which were cancelled). They were disappointed but this latest news has lifted their spirits and mood again. We are now looking forward to this trip which will be extremely valuable to our preparations at this time,” Defour told TTFA Media.
TTFA president David John-Williams was also delighted that the T&T girls will be going to Panama. “Sometimes things work out in such a way that it turns out better in the long run. We knew these matches for the Under-17 girls team were absolutely necessary because we wanted to ensure that just like the boys, they were given the opportunity to get some international match practice.
“And when we received word from both Curacao and Panama that neither could make it (for the current TTFA Youth Invitational Tournament), we had to pursue another avenue,” the local football boss said.
“We followed through with the discussions and we are pleased to say that our U-17 girls team will be off to Panama next week for three matches to help with their preparations,” John Williams said.