GRENOBLE, France — If the confidence exuded by h ead c oach Hue Menzies and captain Konya Plummer is anything to go by, then Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz could very well produce their best performance yet at Fifa Women’s World Cup.

By all indications, the team has physically and mentally recovered from their 0-5 defeat to Italy on Friday, as they came out bubbly in their first training session since arriving back here from the champagne city of Reims ahead of their final Group C game against Australia tomorrow.

Though their chances of progressing to the round of 16 are slim, the Girlz coach and captain remain optimistic that they can extend their debut campaign at the global showpiece, or at least end on a high.

Currently at the foot of the standing without a point and a minus eight goal difference, the Girlz will have to defeat third-placed Australia on three points handsomely and hope that group leaders Italy on six points, better second-placed Brazil, also on three points.

The possibility of those results playing out would see the Reggae Girlz in the running to advance as group runners-ups or at least one of the four best third-place finishers.

On that note, Menzies and his team is currently trying to build a wave of positivity and ride that momentum into the contest against the number six ranked Australians at Stade des Alpes.

Yesterday’s hour and half session at Stade Eugene Thenard would have certainly laid that platform as the players, with the exception of striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, displayed some amount of confidence in each play during the tactical drills which dominated the session.

Shaw, who went through stretching exercises, sat out the tactical drills as a precautionary measure, with a slight hip injury.

“Obviously it is a tough loss because we feel like we didn’t give it the best effort that we could have; but we had a good meeting today (yesterday) and the spirits were better and the energy in training has grown. We quit feeling sorry for ourselves and we just came out here and start taking leadership for our errors.

“So overal, it’s much better and we will just continue to sort it out during our next session and get ready to compete and perform in the next game,” Menzies told the Jamaica Observer.

Wary of the Australians’ lethal transition play and their point player Sam Kerr, Menzies said that yesterday’s session was to ensure that his team is more organised to limit that threat.

“That was the body of the session, to do a lot more tactical stuff to kind of show some things that Australia does and tomorrow (today) we will build on it with more simulation of what Australia will be looking to do. Obviously they are going to try to find Sam Kerr, so we just have to make sure that we can deny some services and try to eliminate the ball getting to her,” Menzies shared.

“It’ll be a tough test but we are definitely working to get a result. I mean, mathematically we are not out of the thing, so we have to go in there and just go after it. We are focused on our own performance because we just feel like we can play better than what we have been doing; and so we are hoping our best will come and the players will push as hard as they can,” he added.

Meanwhile, Plummer, who is one of the youngest captains here at the World Cup, believes her team is now ready to put their best foot forward, having once again reflected on their errors defensively and otherwise.

“After every win or loss players take the time to really reflect on the game and what went wrong and what went right, and try to improve on the mistakes that were made. We have done that and now everyone is back on the grind and focusing on the next match. we are in a positive frame of mind and we are preparing ourselves to give our best performance yet,” the 22-year-old centre back noted.

She continued: “The session was very productive. we did a lot of work on the mistakes that we have made, and earlier we did film and looked back at what we can fix and what we can change. So things like that makes it easier for us to come into training and execute what we want to accomplish in the game.

“The confidence level is pretty awesome; you can see it in the girls’ face that they don’t let disappointments keep them down for long, and they are not easily shaken or discouraged-and that is what makes it easier for me top lead as captain.”