Villa Beach , St Vincent and the Grenadines — Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz will hunt their second victory of the CONCACAF Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Qualifiers when they take on hosts St Vincent and the Grenadines in the final Group E preliminary round of matches, at the Arnos Vale sports complex in Kingstown today.

The teams are scheduled to meet at 4:00 pm (3:00 pm Jamaica time).

Jamaica lead the group with three points, the same as St Kitts and Nevis but with a superior goal difference. St Vincent and the Grenadines are without a point.

In their first encounter in the qualifiers, Jamaica routed St Kitts and Nevis 10-0 on Friday, while St Kitts and Nevis had earlier defeated the host nation 3-1 on Wednesday.

Jamaica’s goals were scored by Giselle Washington (fifth and 22nd minutes), Jody Brown (seventh minute), Monique Perrier (37th and 41st minutes), Rochell Gray (54th and 90th+ minutes), Christina Salmon (76th and 79th), and Jaden Roberts (90th minute).

“I think it was a good performance based on the circumstances we had to face. We knew that it was going to be tough and rough for the girls but they did very well. They (Reggae Girlz) tried and executed as best as they could, but unfortunately some of the girls went down with cramps in the latter part of the game, which was anticipated.

“All of our substitutions were used, of course, because of some cramps. We almost completed the game with 10 players because, after all three substitutions, I decided that I was going to pull out one of the players with three minutes to go. but she said ‘coach I am fine, I will manage’, and that was good. Credit must be given to them for their toughness and understanding in terms of doing well for their country.

“I think that we could have scored more goals but 10 goals were good; I mean it was fantastic and you couldn’t ask for anything more. The good thing about it is that we had six different scorers, so that is good enough for the team in terms of our strength and depth, and for that I am happy and pleased,” head coach Xavier Gilbert told the Jamaica Observer.

However, going up against St Vincent and the Grenadines, Gilbert said that it would be difficult for the young Reggae Girlz to repeat or better their performance against the hosts, but they are going into the contest to win the game.

“It is going to be difficult to get the same result as right now our aim is to win the game. St Vincent and the Grenadines is not necessarily a bad team, I mean they have some good players… it’s just that they weren’t as organised as St Kitts and Nevis the other day, and I think that is why St Kitts beat them.

“St Vincent got some opportunities, three times one-and-one with the goalkeeper, but didn’t manage to score. St Kitts and Nevis managed to score and that was it, and that is what we want to do. We are going to try and put them under pressure early by scoring early.

“The longer the game goes without any goals the more it motivated them (St Vincent and the Grenadines), and so we want to put the game beyond them as soon as possible so that it can be comfortable for us,” explained Gilbert.

Gilbert also said that there will be a few changes to the starting team which played against St Kitts and Nevis.

“I am looking forward to the game tomorrow against the host nation as it is very important on how we manage this Jamaica team. The 11 is definitely going to change for tomorrow as we are bringing in some players and expose them and ensure we don’t overwork the players as well.

The five group winners will qualify for the final stage of qualification and join Haiti as the host of the final round from October 16-22.

In the final round, the six teams will be drawn into two groups of three. the teams finishing first in the two groups automatically qualify for the 2018 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship, and the runner-up teams of the groups will play off in a single match to determine the third-place team to qualify for that tournament.