Senior Multimedia Reporter
Liselle Johnson, head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago senior women’s netball team – dubbed the ‘Calypso Girls’ – is confident of her team continuing its winning streak when the eight-team Netball World Cup Sydney 2027 Americas Qualifiers resume today at the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Complex, Bridgetown, St Michael, Barbados.
Heading into the fourth day of matches following yesterday’s rest day, the Kalifa McCollin-captained team is locked at the top of the standings with host Barbados, ranked 19th in the world, both with 3-0 win-loss records and a maximum of six points each. Canada and St Vincent and the Grenadines follow with four points apiece and 2-1 records.
The Calypso Girls, who are ranked 12th in the world, will meet Canada at 2 pm today. So far at this year’s qualifiers, they have secured wins over Grenada (61-44), St Vincent and the Grenadines (73-41), and the USA (43-38) as they seek to qualify for the 2027 World Cup in Sydney, Australia, and earn a 16th berth to the World Cup in 17 tries, having only missed out on Sydney 1991.
McCollin and her teammates will put their unbeaten run on the line when they come up against world 30th-ranked Canada, who have won two of their three matches played so far, beating St Lucia (34-25) and the British Virgin Islands (67-20) before falling to St Vincent and the Grenadines, 41-51, in their last outing on Wednesday.
Speaking ahead of the resumption of her team’s quest to qualify for Sydney 2027, Johnson said there were a few aspects of her team’s performances that have pleased her, while there is also room for improvement in other departments.
She explained, “So far the girls have exhibited good tactical and technical play at times, and the shooting is always commendable, while at times, they have displayed good communication throughout the court. What needs to be worked on is our game visualisation and being able to adapt a little faster to what is being presented to us by the other team.”
Johnson added, “We also need to be more aggressive and come in more assertively for passes and also to get the ball to transition throughout the court, and also, just to work on having a stronger whole-court defence.”
Having been tagged as tournament favourites, Johnson said part of her task so far has been to keep the group focused on the job at hand in each game, stating, “Sometimes the play of our team tends to lapse, and while I wouldn’t say that we underestimate our opponents, we have tended to relax a bit, and it showed in the game against USA. So, I’m of the firm belief that the match against the USA was a learning lesson, and going forward, I expect that we would be able to manipulate the court a little better and not take any team that we have to play going forward for granted.”
For the clash against Canada, Johnson said she was uncertain if she would be making any changes to her team’s starting line-up.
She stated, “The starting seven has not been decided as yet, but after we have our team meeting tonight (last night), then I will be able to say, ‘Okay, this is the team I’m going forward with for this particular game.’”
However, Johnson noted that she expected another keen test from the North Americans.
“They have a really good defence, and their goalkeeper is tall and has a wonderful elevation and has a wonderful reach also, while their centre court is always working. But from what little I have seen of them, there are a few gaps that we are going to try to work on as much as possible to be able to move through the game and get the win.”
Johnson, while satisfied with the attacking output from her team, mainly through shooters Samantha Wallace-Joseph and McCollin, noted that on the defensive end, her team had some improvements to make.
“There are some things that we need to sharpen up on,” she said. “These are points that we are going to deal with this afternoon at our meeting to be able to correct them for all games going forward.”
Following today’s match, the ‘Calypso Girls’, who were famously joint winners of the Netball World Cup crown with Australia and New Zealand in 1979, will then face St. Lucia on Saturday from 6 pm and the British Virgin Islands on Sunday also from 6 pm before meeting host Barbados in their final match on Monday, October 26, from 8 pm, in what is expected to be the tournament decider.
At the end of the round-robin competition, the top two teams will advance to the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia, from August 25 to September 5, 2027.
