Xavier Gilbert, assistant coach of Jamaica’s senior women’s football team, believes the Reggae Girlz are physically and mentally prepared to take on France in their opening game of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup on Sunday.

The ninth edition of the Women’s World Cup, the quadrennial international association football championship contested by women’s national teams and organised by FIFA, is to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and is scheduled to take place from July 20 to August 20, 2023.

The Reggae Girlz conducted a two-hour training session at the Victoria State Training Centre on Wednesday and did some tactical and technical work, according to Gilbert.

“It was a very good training session; they were buzzing from the get-go, just before the warm-up, and we saw it right throughout the session, and it just goes to show us that the girls are ready and raring to go,” Gilbert said.

“The training session was pretty much about how we can exploit some areas that we think will be left available by the French and also curtail some of their strengths, in terms of how we defend, especially the wide areas.

“We know they are going to want to exploit us; they are going to counter-press a lot and try to force us through the middle and do a lot of pressing from there and then go directly. They play a lot in transition, and so this session was pretty much focused on that,” Gilbert explained.

The assistant coach believes the Reggae Girlz are more than capable of matching strides with the French team and coming away with a positive outcome.

“There is nothing wrong with dreaming because sometimes your dreams come true. I believe we have a decent chance, and if we play smart and contain them, I believe it will become easier for us as the game progresses.

“We have quality players, there is no doubt about that, and we can match up with them,” Gilbert added.

He said that the recent 1-0 win over Morocco in a behind-closed-door friendly encounter should also factor into the approach for the game against the French. The game, according to Gilbert, should instil a lot of confidence in the Jamaicans.

“We did our analysis, and we showed them [the players] some of the clips [in which] we did well, because part of the game was also used to prepare for some of the things that we would have wanted to do against the French team. We did some of that, and even the goal that was scored was a result of what we did before, in terms of playing forward, and even the throw in that we practised resulted in the goal.

“There were a lot of positives that we took out of the game that were part of the preparation. We showed that to the team today (Wednesday) in terms of what we called the red zones, areas that we want to hit and areas we want to protect, and how we play in transition against them,” Gilbert said.

Squad — Rebecca Spencer, Sydney Schneider, Liya Brooks, Allyson Swaby, Chantelle Swaby, Konya Plummer, Tiernny Wiltshire, Tiffany Cameron, Deneisha Blackwood, Peyton McNamara, and Sashana Campbell, Havana Solaun, Vyan Sampson, Drew Spence, Atlanta Primus, Solai Washington, Trudi Carter, Khadija Shaw, Jody Brown, Paige Bailey-Gayle, Kameron Simmonds, Cheyna Matthews, Kalyssa Van Zanten, Kayla McKenna.