Despite suffering a 0-2 defeat to Concacaf powerhouse and rivals Mexico in their opening contest at the Pan American Games yesterday, Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz are still rating their chances of progressing to the knock-out stage of the tournament in Lima, Peru.

Angelica Palacios (39th) and captain Charlyn Corral (58th) got the goals for the Mexicans, who dominated most of the contest and could have won by a wider margin had it not been for another stellar display by Sydney Schneider in goal for Jamaica.

However, the Jamaicans were not completely outplayed as they had their fair share of chances with a slightly better second-half display, but Shayla Smart failed to beat the glove of custodian Cecilia Santiago, while Jayda Pelaia-Hylton hit the cross bar and Lauren Silver skied a sitter late in the contest.

As such, Mexico assumed pole position in Group A on three points ahead of Paraguay and Colombia on a point each after they played out a goalless stalemate, with the Jamaicans at the foot of the four-team standing without a point.

Reggae Girlz Head Coach Hue Menzies credited the team for a more purposeful second-half display, but in the same breath acknowledged the need for improvement, particularly from a defensive standpoint.

“Obviously we brought a young team here, a little bit inexperienced team and Mexico has their full team here, so it was a good experience for us, as we also had our opportunities to finish. But we felt good about the second half of the game, where you could clearly see the first half we were just a little bit shell-shocked going against a top team like Mexico.

“So we adjusted ourselves in the second half, and you could see that we came out and went at them. We adjusted our line of confrontation because first half we dropped too deep, and just us changing our attitude and our confrontation line helped a lot,” Menzies said in a post-game interview at Estadio Universidad San Marcos in Lima, yesterday.

“From a defensive standpoint the Mexicans overloaded us, but we can make those adjustments and we have to keep working on that throughout this tournament and continue to make some adjustments. So we are not out of it yet, we still have two games to play and we are going to give it our best,” he added.

Meanwhile, captain Sashana Campbell earned special commendation from Menzies for fixing a lot of things during the game, given her versatility to fit into various positions.

But the experienced player, who was among the historic World Cup squad, is expecting more of herself and teammates going into Wednesday’s second game against Colombia.

“I think we started off a little bit slow, the game was tough but I think, especially for the younger girls, they got a really good experience of what to expect going into the other games,” Campbell, 28, told the Jamaica Observer.

“I think we could have kept the ball more and defended a lot better; when we won the ball we panicked and kept booting the ball up field for them to come right back at us.

“So going into the next game, I think we just need to stay compact and relax and maintain possession. This was our first game together with this team, so with the jitters now out the way, we can just take the second half momentum into the next game and make the most of our chance to get out of the group,” she added.