SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Jamaica Women’s Under-17 assistant coach Xavier Gilbert credited the team for their hard-fought 2-2 result against hosts Puerto Rico in their Group A opener.

Gilbert said it is a part of the learning curve.

Goals from Tarania Clarke and overseas-based Marlee Fray earned the young Reggae Girlz a point, same as the hosts, who got their goals from Angela Diaz.

Cuba are the early leaders on three points after a 1-0 win over Bermuda.

The young Girlz team, which comprises five new overseas-based players representing the team for the first time, started out flat against a bustling Puerto Rico unit, but later picked up their tempo.

“It was not our best performance; we got the early goal and hope that it would have settled the girls and the tempo of the game. Nevertheless, we came under a little bit of pressure from the Puerto Ricans and I don’t think the girls handled the defensive as best as we could have.

“But credit to them; I think they did well. There were a little bit of nerves from these young ladies a lot of them debutants and they are young, they will learn and it’s a part of their learning curve,” Gilbert told OBSERVER ONLINE.

And with the game now under their belt, Gilbert is confident that with a little bit more work and gelling time, the Girlz will be more competitive going forward.

“It is the first time they were playing together; so it takes time, they are young and it is just unfortunate that it is in a tournament and a high-quality game like this we have to do this. But it is what we have to work with… I am sure most of the teams have similar situation and I think we are going to get stronger and better as we go on,” he declared.

The Young Reggae Girlz are set to take on Bermuda in their second game of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Women’s Under-17 Final Round of Qualifiers today at Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel at 4:30 pm (3:30 pm Jamaica time). Puerto Rico are scheduled to face Cuba in the feature game at 7:00 pm.

Group B consists of Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Barbados. Three of the eight teams will go to the CONCACAF Qualifiers in February in Grenada.

The ultimate goal of the Jamaicans is to get to the Under-17 FIFA Women’s World Cup to be held in Jordan in 2016 September.

Sherdon Cowan