JAMAICA’S young Reggae Girlz will be aiming to extend their unbeaten run and their stay in the Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Championship when they face Cuba in round-of-16 action in the Dominican Republic today.

The contest is scheduled for 6:00 pm (Jamaica time) at Estadio Olympico Felix Sanchez in Santo Domingo.

Still buoyed by their 1-1 stalemate with powerhouse Canada, the Jamaicans, who enjoyed a very convincing group stage campaign in Group F in which they also defeated Bermuda and the host nation 7-0 and 3-1, respectively, should be confident of replicating those performances against their Caribbean neighbours.

Another win for the young Reggae Girlz would propel them into the quarter-final as they aim to surpass the country’s best showing at this tournament — a fourth-place finish in 2013 — and, by extension, secure a historic World Cup qualification at age group level.

With that in mind, Head Coach Dane Chambers said it is all systems go for the win against the Cubans who were third in Group H with a solitary 2-0 win over cellar team Guatemala.

“It will be another tough game but, as I said before, this team can rise to any occasion placed before them. We know Cuba will be doing some tactical adjustments based on team organisation and some other technical issues, but our team is in high spirits and so we are still upbeat about our chances,” Chambers told the Jamaica Observer.

While leading scorer Natoya Atkinson with three goals, as well as Maya Raghunandanan and Tiny Seaton with two each will no doubt be keen on continuing their scoring form, Chambers is also wary of their defensive fortitude having conceded two goals in the group stage.

This he sought to address in Saturday’s training session ahead of the game.

“It was a tactical one — we worked on a few things in terms of team organisation, especially compactness defensively and offensively as well a combination plays and set pieces. So, we actually went through the five moments of the game and we closed off with some penalty kicks,” Chambers explained.

For Chambers, practising 12-yard kicks ensures the young Reggae Girlz are prepared for the possibility of the game ending in a stalemate, which would result in the dreaded penalties being the decider.

However, the tactician wants to ensure that they get the job done without the game going down to the wire. As such, he is hoping to get his best 11 on the pitch to start, provided all are fit and ready to go.

“Well we will have to do a final assessment of the players and then the staff will meet and decide on who are doubtful, pertaining to the minor injuries in the team,” Chambers noted.

The quarter-finals and semi-finals are scheduled to be contested on May 4 and 6, respectively, with the third-place game and final set for May 8.

At the conclusion of the event the two finalists and third-place finisher will qualify for the 2022 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in India in October.