Republished December 02, 2014 - 5:26 PM
Original Publication Date December 02, 2014 - 4:55 PM
Monica Quinteros scored in second-half stoppage time, and Ecuador beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 Tuesday night to secure the final spot in next year's Women's World Cup, the first with 24 nations.
The teams played a 0-0 draw in the first leg of the home-and-home playoff between the third-place team from South America and the No. 4 nation from North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Ecuador reached the Women's World Cup for the first time.
Trinidad and Tobago earned attention when the team arrived in the U.S. to train for the CONCACAF tournament with just $500, prompting coach Randy Waldrum to appeal to Twitter for help buying food and equipment for the players.
The 22,000-seat Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain was sold out for Tuesday's match.
The draw to divide the two-time champion United States and other qualifying teams into six groups will take place Saturday at Ottawa, Ontario.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014