As the time to launch their bid for a spot in the CONCACAF Championship draws closer, Assistant Coach Xavier Gilbert continued to whip his Under-20 Reggae Girlz into shape ahead of the crucial assignment.

Gilbert hosted another two-day camp over the weekend with a pool of local players, as they gradually intensified preparations for the final round of Caribbean qualifiers to be held in St Kitts & Nevis from November 22-26.

The young Reggae Girlz will be hunting one of two qualifying spots available in the CONCACAF Championship round to be played in Trinidad & Tobago in January 2018, when they go up against the host Dominican Republic and Haiti.

Trinidad & Tobago occupy the third spot from the Caribbean as the host of the CONCACAF round.

Gilbert expressed pleasure with the level of intensity displayed by the players thus far over the three sessions at the JFF Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence, sited at The University of the West Indies Mona Campus.

“Things are looking good so far. We are focusing a lot on fitness to kind of strengthen the players a little bit and the girls are responding well to the task. But it is still early days yet so we will see how they continue to progress as we move forward, because there are still some areas that we definitely need to work on ahead of departure,” Gilbert told the Jamaica Observer.

“All in all, it was three good sessions. It was lively and the girls managed themselves well and I am pretty happy. We didn’t do much, but in terms of what we did, the intensity was there and that is a good sign,” he added.

As has become customary in recent times, Gilbert revealed that they are trying to secure two friendly encounters prior to the tournament to assist in their tactical thrust.

However, details of those fixtures are yet to be finalised.

“These games will help us to make further assessments in terms of how they look with pressure in terms of opponents, so it will help us a little bit more from a tactical standpoint and then will take it from there,” the tactician noted.

He continued: “Having a good pool of local players that we are able to select from is good and most of these girls have played together at Under-17 and Under-20 last year, so we have something to build on.

“So like I said, things are looking good so far and we anticipate a consistent level of improvement during the course of these camps leading up to the tournament.”

The Jamaicans defeated Curacao 10-0 and host Bermuda 2-1 in their first-round CFU qualifying phase in Bermuda earlier this year.

– Sherdon Cowan