Girlz coach targets clinical display against St Lucia
Despite two big wins already in the bag, Assistant Coach Hubert Busby believes Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz need to be more clinical in front of goal as they head into their third Concacaf Women’s Olympic Caribbean Qualifier against St Lucia at National Stadium today.
Having already hammered Cuba 12-1 and brushed aside Barbados 7-0, the Jamaicans should confirm Group B honours with what is expected to be another blowout win on home soil.
The feature contest is scheduled for 6:30 pm, after Barbados and United States (US) Virgin Islands lock horns in the curtain-raiser at 4:00 pm.
Jamaica are currently in pole position with six points. They have 19 goals to their stats sheet, while they have conceded only one.
Second-placed Cuba are also on six points, but from three games, while third-placed St Lucia and fourth-placed Barbados have three points each. US Virgin Islands are without a point.
While welcoming the wide margin of victories, Busby, pointed out that a more important factor for the Reggae Girlz is to improve as a unit, with the core of the team having not played together since their Fifa Women’s World Cup appearance in France.
“It was another game for us to come together; we now have most of our senior players in for this tournament, which is good to give them another run out.
“But we have to sharpen our ability in front of goal, there were a couple of times we should have finished some goals, but we can’t fault them — a 7-0 victory is good and we are heading to where we want which is to advance,” Busby said following the win over Barbados on Friday.
“I think it is important for us to focus on the things we want to improve on and obviously be successful in two more games. We are not taking anything for granted, we just need to do what we need to do to progress and be better heading into the next round of qualifiers,” he added.
The goalkeeper coach who, along with Assistant Coach Lorne Donaldson, is guiding the team in Hue Menzies’ absence, hinted at the possibility of another marauding performance in today’s game.
“We will approach the game with the same mindset; one thing we have said is that we are professionals, so we have to go about it with the right mindset. We respect all our opponents and we have to go about it the right way.
“It really is about us focusing on things we can do better and things we need to improve on and if we do that then we shouldn’t have a problem,” Busby reasoned.
Elsewhere, Dominican Republic lead Group A on seven points, having played one game more than hosts and second-placed Trinidad and Tobago (six points), with St Kitts and Nevis (four points) third from two games. Antigua and Barbuda and Aruba are both pointless.
Haiti kicked off their campaign with a 10-0 win over Suriname on Thursday to take early control of Group C in Port-au-Prince. Puerto Rico and Suriname were scheduled to meet yesterday.
Only the three group winners will advance to the final round, where they will meet United States, Mexico, Canada and others, to vie for the top two spots to represent Concacaf at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Jamaica squad — Chris-Ann Chambers, Tiernny Wiltshire, Sashana Campbell, Allyson Swaby, Dominique Bond-Flasza, Deneisha Blackwood, Chinyelu Asher, Havana Solaun, Shantel Bailey, Cheyna Matthews, Tiffany Cameron, Trudi Carter, Reilly Paterson, Khadija Shaw, Ricquelle Farquharson, Chantelle Swaby, Rena Gordon, Tarania Clarke.