Jamaica’s High-Performance Director William Hitzelberger believes the Reggae Girlz display against Mexico is the best he has seen since joining the programme eight years ago.

Hitzelberger, one of the trendsetters in bringing high-tech expertise to the fitness coach’s role, couldn’t have been prouder of the team’s collective stamina throughout Monday’s match against Mexico at the Concacaf Women’s Championship.

“After the match against Mexico — it’s probably all around the best 90 minutes of football I have seen since being in this programme,” said Hitzelberger.

According to him, many players got to the pre-tournament training camp not in the best of condition and it took an all-round effort to get everybody in tip-top shape.

“There are a lot of variables to consider. You have players coming in from different leagues from around the world,” he pointed out.

“So you have players coming from England that has been out of season for three to four weeks, depending on their clubs. You have players coming from the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League] who were in season, some maybe not getting as many minutes as we would like to see.

“Then you have some from some other countries who are also midseason. Maybe that’s why our fitness levels were not what we used to see when they reported to camp,” he theorised.

“So, from my side, I have to take all these different variables into consideration and work with the rest of the staff to come up with a plan and a model to get them to July 4 (start of the championship), which was our goal when we were in camp for two weeks and another five days here [in Mexico],” he explained.

“That game against Mexico — that 90 minutes is the first several players had played. So we are still recovering from that and maybe you will see some changes in the line-ups making sure we put out a solid team,” said Hitzelberger.

Hitzelberger, who has operated a sports performance business in Orlando, Florida, for 17 years and played college football, said his job after the Mexican game was to get the girls ready for battle quickly.

“My job after that game against Mexico is to get our players back to 100 per cent as quickly as possible. If you haven’t played 90 minutes in four to six weeks you are gonna pay for that. So some of our players are still getting back,” he noted.

“We have no injuries right now. We have no muscle strains and we just have some fatigue and so on from the match, and it goes to the medical staff and everybody involved. To be able to go into your second match with no injuries is something to hang your hat on,” said Hitzelberger.