It was by no means the result they wanted, but having fought hard to earn a point in their opening Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship contest against Guatemala on Saturday, Head Coach Xavier Gilbert is optimistic that his young Reggae Girlz can build on that performance in Dominican Republic today.

The Jamaicans will look to go one better in their second Group E fixture against El Salvador, where victory would see them in a strong position to secure one of three spots from the group to continue their hunt for a historic Fifa World Cup qualification.

Estadio Panamericano in San Cristobal will be the venue for the 12:00 noon (Jamaica time) fixture, which will precede the Canada versus Guatemala encounter scheduled for 3:00 pm.

Following their 4-4 stalemate, Jamaica and Guatemala sit joint second on one point each, behind powerhouse and favourites Canada, on three points, after their 2-0 win over pointless El Salvador.

Gilbert and his coaching staff opted out of a tactical session to focus solely on recovery yesterday, but were expected to examine films of El Salvador’s game against Canada during a team meeting later in the day, to strategically plot a path to gain all three points against the Salvadorans.

“We just have to play smart; we saw them against Canada and there are some weak areas which we are hoping to exploit, but I am sure they saw us as well and will be thinking the same.

“So, hopefully we can use our speed up top to good advantage and get behind them, because they are a very organised and disciplined bunch. We just have to try and stretch them as much as possible to get some balls behind them and get some goals to secure the points,” Gilbert told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

Reflecting on their opening presentation where it took a stellar performance from the experienced Marlee Fray and Jody Brown to salvage the point against Guatemala, Gilbert stated the clear need for significant improvements.

Fray’s goals came in the 54th, 68th, and 76th minutes, while Brown grabbed the other in the 50th minute.

Andrea Alvarez (25th and 78th), Sandra Ovando (12th) and Maria Recinos (34th) were the scorers for the Central Americans.

The tactician particularly pointed to game management as one area in which his team fell short, having done the hard work to come from three goals down to go in front, before surrendering the lead in the latter stages of the contest.

Prior to the second-half heroics, the young Reggae Girlz dominated most of the first half but squandered numerous chances and, as a result, were left to play catch-up.

Though not yet confirmed, Gilbert could make one change to his starting team for today’s contest, as Ella Dennis seems set to replace Milan Dewkinandan in goal.

As such, Lauren Reid, Jaden Roberts, Gabrielle Gayle and Malia Atkins should again make up the defensive line, with Nevillegail Able, Lace-Ann Murray and Peyton McNamara doing midfield duties.

Brown, Fray and Chantelle Parker are once again expected to lead the three-prong attack in the 4-3-3 formation.

— Sherdon Cowan