HEAD Coach Lorne Donaldson maintains that things with his senior Reggae Girlz remain on the right track despite a narrow 0-1 loss to South Korea in their international friendly encounter on Saturday.

A 13th-minute tap in from Yuri Choe gave the moderate crowd inside the 35,000 plus-capacity Hwaseong Stadium much to celebrate. It proved the difference between the two nations who were meeting for the first time as part of their build-up to next year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Choe was first to react and fire past Jamaica’s Sydney Schneider from close range after Mina Lee’s initial left-footed effort, from a distance, rocketed back off the left upright.

Though they were behind the ball for the most part the Girlz did move well when in possession and showed good attacking intent in patches, particularly in the second half, but were unable to produce many meaningful opportunities to beat Korea’s custodian Kim Jung-Mi.

“We saw some stuff playing against this style that we are not accustomed to. I think the first half, we were very tentative and we gave up a goal — which we shouldn’t have — but we gave the ball away in the midfield and got punished. But the second half, we came out and w were much better. I think we could have scored but that’s just football,” Donaldson said in a post-game interview.

With this being the Girlz’ first outing since securing back-to-back World Cup qualifications following on the heels of their 2019 appearance in France, Donaldson pointed out that the encounter served its purpose in not only providing quality competition but, more importantly, allowing his technical staff to look at a few players.

“We were trying to ensure that the Korean team didn’t do what they do very well. Again, the aim is to evaluate players against some good teams, and playing the Korean team is a style of football that we are not used to but wanted to familiarise ourselves with it because we don’t know what the World Cup draw will bring,” Donaldson reasoned.

“Winning is always good, but we just have to accept the result and continue our evaluation because that’s what we are here for. So, we will make some adjustments so players that didn’t play this game will play in the next game because we want to make the most of this opportunity,” he added.

That next game Donaldson refers to is Tuesday’s closed-door traning match where his 42nd-ranked Girlz will again lock horns with their 18th-ranked host.

While he was reluctant to name standout players, Birmingham City’s Siobhan Wilson produced a good shift on her debut, with 18-year-old Kameron Simmonds also earning her first senior cap, though not figuring much in the latter stages.

Still, Donaldson remains optimistic that the closed-door game will offer a clearer indication of players’ quality and, by extension, some really good lessons to set the tone for the next two Fifa windows in October and November.

“We have to try to come back in the next game, and the rest of the players have to come out and show some stuff. I think some players showed some good stuff [in this game] and I thought defensively we were very tight. So, some stuff that we didn’t do very well before, we kind of did it here so that’s a positive,” Donaldson noted.

“There is going to be a lot of new players in there [next game] so we can look at them, because they are here and that’s why we brought them. We have to make some decisions going forward for the next two windows and continue to evaluate,” the tactician ended.

— Sherdon Cowan