PANAMA CITY, Panama — Jamaica’s Under-20 Reggae Girlz have received high marks from coach Vin Blaine even as they were eliminated from the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying tournament.

In a constructive and tactically commendable game for 70 minutes of their do-or-die showdown against Canada at the Romel Fernandez Stadium here Saturday night, the Jamaicans conceded two late goals to go down 0-2 to Canada, effectively eliminating them from the play-offs with a game in hand against Haiti today.

Jenna Richardson (76th minute) and Catherine Charron-DeLange (82nd) got Canada’s goals to condemn the Young Girlz to their second straight defeat, having come out on the unfavourable end of a 3-1 scoreline to Mexico on Thursday.

“I believe that the girls did very well coming off a loss to Mexico, as they showed the fight that we asked them for, and with a little luck I think we could have gone 2-0 up… it’s one of those games that you hate to lose and the girls really showed that they have what it takes to compete at the highest level,” said Blaine of Saturday’s audacious performance against Canada, who now join Mexico in the semi-finals.

Blaine said with proper preparation, the story could have had a happy ending for the Girlz.

“With proper preparation, we could have achieved more. This goes to show that we must have quality preparation coming into major tournaments… we make mistakes in these games and correct them as we go along where it should be the other way around, where we should be making mistakes in the practice games and we could have people understand their roles,” lamented Blaine.

Jamaica’s only preparation coming into the tournament was a two-game friendly stint over four days where the team engaged two far-from-ideal opponents, which paled in comparison to the rich programmes of their conquerors.

“When we come into the game without proper preparation, this is what you get where our first match becomes our practice game and every game after that we play better as we can now adjust as a coaching staff and the girls themselves will better understand what they need to do.

“After the Mexico game we showed them their mistakes and told them they cannot repeat those and they came out and showed that they have what it took and they did extremely well,” Blaine said of the Canada rendition, which looked certain of producing the desired result until they Girlz wilted towards the end.

But Blaine, who runs the national technical programme of women’s football in Jamaica, said he has taken heart in the delivery of his charges, having enumerated the distinct disadvantages they came into the tournament with.

“Anybody who watched the game against Canada would have realised that we have what it takes to perform at the highest level, but without proper preparation and support, it will never happen,” he told the Observer.

In the opening game of Saturday night’s double-header, Mexico, who defeated Jamaica 3-1 in Thursday’s opening round of matches of the 12-day play-offs, flattened Haiti 10-0.

They were spurred by Natalia Gomez-Junco’s four goals (59th, 60th, 70th and 77th minutes), with the rout completed by goals from Tanya Samarzich (20th), Ariana Martinez (28th & 48th), Olivia Jimenez (31st), Yamile Franco (64th) and Daniela Solis (76th).

In the day’s late kick-off, and with nerves still a little ragged in the early exchanges, Jamaica’s central defender Renee Freeman’s poor attempt at clearing the ball gifted possession to Canada’s Richardson whose final effort was smothered by an alert Taylor Grant in goal.

But in the third minute of play, Jamaica were denied a penalty when a Canadian player cradled the ball in the box, which triggered appeals from the Jamaicans, but the Cuban referee Annia Navarette looked away.

After a cautious start, Jamaica threatened seriously for the first time in the 18th minute when captain Trudi Carter made a vital interception in the middle of the park and offered a quick release of striker Kimberly Spence, who went in a high one-on-one with the Canadian goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, but the goalkeeper won that contest.

But in an even 30 minutes of play, Jamaica, like the Canadians, had their share of looks at goal resulting from their slow, but deliberate transitional play from defence into the offensive third. Jamaica appeared then a team capable of snatching a favourable result on the cool Panamanian night.

The Canadians were, however, more direct as they attacked down the middle and occasionally down the flanking channels. But the Jamaican Girlz held their lines and mopped up each threat in collective manner.

With 35 minutes on the clock, Jamaica had another go at goal when Carter unleashed from 35 yards, but the dipping ball did not gravitate enough and in time to find its intended target.

When the first half came to a close some 15 seconds ahead of the 45-minute mark according to the giant stadium time piece, it would have been a stanza that would have satisfied the coaching team.

On the resumption, the Young Girlz kept up their first-half momentum with constructive play by keeping possession in the opponents’ half of the field, scheming for openings.

And in one of those moves in the 54th minute, Nugene Nugent was sent barrelling down the right side, and in stride, crossed for the towering Marlo Sweatman, whose sliding boot could not make contact.

Defender Toriana Patterson, who had come forward for a piece of Carter’s right-sided corner in the 67th minute, elicited a chorus of ‘oohs’ with flashing headers that missed the frame by mere inches.

The Girlz continued to compete admirably until the North Americans’ discipline and the introduction of fleet of foot substitutes gave their game a lift in the final 20 minutes or so of play.

The Canadians’ industry paid dividends in the 76th minute when the Jamaican defence failed to clear a ball that lingered in the area, which allowed Richardson to lash into an open goal after goalkeeper Taylor was still recovering from committing herself.

Six minutes later from a similar penalty box melee that started with a corner, Catherine Charron-Delage blasted home to put the Canadians in the driver’s seat.

Meanwhile, Group B favourites USA got their campaign going with a 6-0 whipping of Guatemala on Friday, while hosts Panama clipped Cuba 2-1.

Only the two top teams from each of the two zones will progress to the semi-finals, with both winners gaining automatic places to the FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Japan from August 18 to September 9.

The third CONCACAF spot will be filled by the winner of the third-place play-off.