JAMAICA’S Reggae Girlz failed to make their numerical advantage count as they were held to a frustrating goalless stalemate by Costa Rica in their international friendly at DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale yesterday.

The Jamaicans enjoyed well over 80 minutes of the fund-raising encounter with a player advantage, after Costa Rica’s Katherine Alvarado was shown a straight red card in the sixth minute for pulling back Atlanta Primus, denying a clear and obvious scoring opportunity.

However, the Reggae Girlz, though dominant throughout in the attacking third, failed to capitalise and were left ruing what could have been a successful end to their one-week camp courtesy of Cedella Marley’s ‘Football is Freedom’ initiative.

Still, credit must be given to the Central Americans who made the necessary adjustments and were very gritty in defence after going one player down.

In fact, it was the excellent glove work of custodian Daniela Solera that truly denied Hubert Busby’s Reggae Girlz who got 19 shots off, eight of which were on target.

While the result was not entirely in their favour, Busby lauded his team for what was a tidy execution — for the most part.

“Overall, I am extremely pleased with the performance. Obviously not the result we wanted per se but in terms of our playing principles and things that we have been working on, we couldn’t ask for any more from the group because they did very well.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t put the ball in the net and sometimes that’s just football, but we executed well. We played through the lines and were patient at times when we could have rushed the game so I am very proud of the way they managed the game. And, we created enough opportunities to win but, again, that’s just football and it’s obviously unfortunate we didn’t get the win,” the tactician added.

— Sherdon Cowan