Hugh Bradford relished the fire and passion displayed by his young Reggae Girlz across their three qualifying fixtures, so it is understandable why he is already anticipating a competitive outing at next month’s Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship.

The satisfaction of knowing they will contest the May 24 to June 3 championship in the Dominican Republic was evident in Bradford’s voice, as he reflected on his team’s accomplishment of topping Group E with maximum nine points, while scoring 10 goals without conceding.

After registering a handsome 6-0 win over Anguilla, the young Reggae Girlz then blanked Bermuda 2-0, before battling hard to down Honduras by a similar scoreline, courtesy of Natoya Atkinson’s brace in their top-of-the-table clash in Nicaragua on Tuesday.

“I didn’t think there was a drop off in our performance in our last two games, our objective was to go in and win three games and that’s what we did. We didn’t care what the score was as long as we won the three games, so that was the approach and I am happy that the young ladies got it done,” Bradford told the Jamaica Observer shortly after arriving back at his base in the United States on Wednesday.

“I thought they left everything on the pitch, especially in that Honduras game and I think Honduras did as well, but we were the team that put the goals away and that I believe is testament to the players and their hard work coming into and throughout this tournament,” he added.

Jamaica, along with Panama, who also topped their group, now join powerhouse United States and Mexico in the championship with the other qualifiers to be decided in the coming days.

“We are happy to have moved on to the next round, we are just going to go back and start training and work on what we think we need to, to try and improve ourselves,” Bradford shared.

That said, the tactician expressed pleasure with elements of the team’s showing and wants the players to maintain that level of positivity going into the next phase.

The two finalists and third-place finisher from next month’s Championship will secure berths at next year’s FIFA Under-20 Women’s World Cup.

“Just getting to the next round was a lot of work in and of itself, every country was trying to get there and we are one of the few that made it in. So, now we have to start over and start planning for the next round, work on improving our strengths and weaknesses and just continue to build as a team,” Bradford noted.

“I think the young ladies have proven that they are willing to fight for this [World Cup qualification] and they are willing to give everything that they have for each other and the country and so that’s the approach we will continue to take as we move forward,” he ended.