JAMAICA’S National Under-17 female team left the island yesterday en route to Trinidad & Tobago (T&T) where they will participate in the four-nation tournament between today and next Friday.

The young Reggae Girlz will play alongside host T&T, Mexico and Canada as they continue final preparations for the CONCACAF Championship set for Costa Rica starting March 10.

Coming out of the eight-team CONCACAF championship, three teams will qualify for the FIFA World Cup to be staged in Trinidad and Tobago from September 5-25 this year.

This tournament will be used to test the infrastructure and T&T’s readiness to host the World Championship.

The 25-member Jamaican delegation, including 20 players, will be staying at the Hall of Residence at the University of the West Indies in Port of Spain.

All games will be at the Larry Gomes Stadium and Jamaica will open their account against host T&T today, before playing Canada next Wednesday and Mexico two days later.

They are scheduled to return to Jamaica next Saturday before leaving for the CONCACAF qualifiers.

These games are critical as both Canada and Mexico are drawn in the same group as Jamaica and Panama in the CONCACAF Championship.

The mighty USA, Costa Rica, Haiti and Cayman Islands are pitted together in the other CONCACAF group which seemed to be the easier of the two groups.

Head coach Vinimore Blaine had stressed the importance of these games as he would get an opportunity to scout two top opponents that will be standing in Jamaica’s way to qualify for the World Cup.

The young Reggae Girlz should be bubbling with confidence after dispatching the Cayman Island 3-1 and 6-0 in two friendly games in that country last week.

Squad: Shauntae Brown, Teola Caine, Shanel Spence, Chris-Ann Chambers, Roheema Bennett, Remona Hyde, Sh’nell Briscoe, Lotoya Duhaney, Davia Morrison, Nicole Broderick, Shenika Williams, Shanese Bowen, Trudi Carter, Shantel Graham, Natani Tomlinson-Traill, Renee Freeman, Sashonna Bennett, Shantel Bailey, Shanise Foster, Tisha Campbell-Henny.

— Howard Walker