Confident Girlz depart

...Take aim at becoming first women's team in World Cup

BY SEAN A WILLIAMS Assistant Sport Editor

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Jamaica's Young Reggae Girlz depart Jamaica today confident that they can give a good account of themselves at the CONCACAF Under-17 Women's World Cup qualifying tournament in Costa Rica from March 10-20.

And even in the face of frightful odds, the Girlz have not written off the possibility of creating history by being the first Jamaican women's team to qualify for a world tournament.

Their new-found confidence, claims head coach Vin Blaine, is stimulated in the main by their "encouraging" performance against CONCACAF powerhouse Mexico in a four-team dress rehearsal in Trinidad and Tobago last week, even as they lost 0-2.

"In the Mexico game I think we matched up well as we were 0-0 at half-time, and I think we had about 60 per cent of that game (possession)," said Blaine.

"The Girlz are now confident that they can do it and think they are up to the task now, and coming out of Trinidad, they are very positive," he added.

Mexico, along with Canada and Panama, will be Jamaica's adversaries in Group A of the CONCACAF play-offs where the top two finishers will gain automatic qualification to the age-group FIFA World Cup to be staged in Trinidad and Tobago in September this year.

The other group will be contested by another CONCACAF powerhouse USA, hosts Costa Rica, Haiti and the Cayman Islands.

With the strong Canadians a clear cut above the rest of the field in Group A, Blaine has targeted Mexico and Panama as possible teams that Jamaica could snatch valuable points from in their quest to advance to the semi-finals.

"I think that Mexico could give us an opportunity (to win) if we can put the ball on the ground and play smart football. I have no idea about the Panamanians, we have never seen them play, but I hear they are a good team," he noted.

And though they were spanked 4-1 by the mighty Canadians, the Jamaican coaching staff said that the Girlz should be going into this week's qualifiers better prepared, having got a close-up of at least two of their foes.

"The fact that the Girlz played in this tournament allowed them to know their opponents a little better, and they would have realised the mistakes they made," argued Blaine, who coaches all teams in the women's programme.

"In the Canada game we made a lot of mistakes as our players came under a lot of pressure from the Canadians, who are big and strong and these are mistakes that caused the goals, but when you play opponents like Canada, Mexico and the USA, you must improve after a while and you would know exactly what you have to do," he said.

In their other match-up in Trinidad, the Girlz and the hosts ended goal-less.

Just days before heading for the Trinidad four-team tournament, the Girlz had a two-game series against neighbours the Cayman Islands in that country where the Jamaicans won 3-1 and 6-0.

"We are very pleased with the games we got, this is the first time that a women's football team got such good games prior to a tournament, we see them (games) as training and hopefully we can correct a few things," explained Blaine.

Jamaica open their account in Costa Rica on Thursday against nemesis Canada in the second game of a double-header, and Blaine believes this is the encounter that will truly measure the true status of the team and could be an indicator going forward.

"We play Canada in the first game of the tournament... we are right now just concentrating on them to see how well we can compete with them, and if we play smart, we can do well... we just need to improve in the areas of moving off the ball and to play quickly," he said.

The good news is that the squad has been bolstered by the Florida-based pair of Alika Keene (central midfielder) and Adrianna Johnson (defender).

The 18-member squad is completed by Shauntae Brown, Teola Caine, Chris-Ann Chambers, Remona Hyde, Sh'nell Briscoe, Lotoya Duhaney, Davia Morrison, Shenika Williams, Shanese Bowen, Trudi Carter, Shantel Graham, Natani Tomlinson-Traill, Renee Freeman, Shantel Bailey, Shanise Foster and Tisha Campbell-Henny.

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