Women footballers in T&T have been using the wrong technique, new national women’s coach and head of the Women’s Development Programme Carolina Morace has said, following her first week of training at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Balmain, Couva yesterday.
It was one of few observations made by the Italian coach who has been recruited by the T&T Football Association (TTFA) to help develop local women’s football and take the country’s senior and under-20 teams to the World Cup.
Morace pointed out that players’ passes were inaccurate because of the techniques being used were not the right one. “The technique that they use is just random. The players passes were not accurate and the technique they use was not the right technique. Sometimes it’s just a suggestion, a little suggestion, that goes a long way.”
Assistant coach Nicola Williams called on players to work on their technical abilities, saying how the players pass and receive the ball are areas that they will have to develop. “Their natural ability in the match, the dribbling and fake is already good, but we have a journey to go on”, she explained.
Because of this Morace and her team intend to work hard with local coaches to show them the right techniques in passing and receiving the ball, and how to impart it to young players. She describe it as a critical part of their programme. Morace who is head of the programme is being assisted by Williams who is also coach of the country’s under-20 team, while another Italian Manuela Tesse is coach of the under-17 team and Betty Bavagnoli will also provide assistance to Morace at the senior team level.
They are expected to be joined by a number of local coaches soon. It is understood this is being organised by the T&TFA which is being led by David John Williams, the man behind the overall development of women’s football in T&T.
Only recently John-Williams announced that his association will look at offering women footballers and coaches contracts.
Morace, who coached the Canadian women’s team to the Concacaf championship in 2010, said another observation she made was that the local players were not fit. “What we can say is that the players are not fit. They need something. If you want to show your ability you have to be fit.”
As Morace continues her search for the country’s best players, she will continue with an open-door policy in which any and all players desirous of representing the country, will have the opportunity to try out. However she noted her policy is not a guarantee that anyone will make it on the national team, saying to make it on the team you have to have something more than a normal player.
According to Morace “It is about sacrifice and understanding what we want. I think there are many potential players here. We have to keep the potentials and improve the potentials. We have to be able to transform the potentials.”