CATHERINE HALL, St James — Head coach of the Jamaican senior national women’s team Hubert Busby Jr says the coaching staff is keeping an eye on the start of qualifying for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup when they play the first of a two-match friendly international against South Africa this evening at the Montego Bay Sports Complex starting at 8:00 pm.

The Jamaicans will be hoping to put their 3-0 loss against France, in a friendly played at Stade Auguste Bonal in Montbéliard in the last international window, behind them, when they take on the South Africans in two games with the second set for Monday at the same venue.

The teams have only met once before, in a friendly international in 2019, and Busby Jr says both games will be important towards the realisation of their primary objectives.

“Every match that we play is important because it’s another step on our journey to Brazil,” Busby Jr told the Jamaica Observer. “[It’s] another opportunity for us to come together, another opportunity for us to build on our playing principles, and another opportunity for us to go out there and get a win.”

The Jamaicans are ranked 42nd in the world, not too far above the team nicknamed Banyana Banyana (The Girls) who improved to number 50 in the latest FIFA rankings.

Just before training at the game venue yesterday, Busby Jr underlined that the performance of the team over the two games will be more important than results.

“Everything is leading up to getting to the World Cup qualifiers. It’s an opportunity for us to continue, like I said, to work on our playing model, continue to build on the principles in terms of the things that we want to do, in and out of possession, and then just to come together as a group,” he said.

“This is an opportunity for us to continue to build on our team culture, for us to continue to build on connections that happen both on and off the field, those things are so important [and can] translate onto the pitch,” he added. “So what happens off the pitch is just as important a lot of times, what then translates on the pitch, and the ability for us to meet with players, the ability for us to be together and show them film and certain things that we’ve done well, and then for us to work on areas and where we want to grow. So it’s just vitally important that we continue to use these opportunities in a way for us to keep building.”

At least five players aged 20 or younger were included in the squad that was named for the two games while a number of senior players including captain Khadija “Bunny” Shaw are also included and Busby Jr noted that this was important as they sought to keep “building on the core of the team”.

Goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer was absent from training at the Montego Bay Sports Complex yesterday but the Jamaica Observer was told she would be available for selection for the game.

Busby Jr added that the coaching staff continues to pay close attention to the pool of available players and looks to provide opportunties for those who have missed out on other opportunites to accept calls due to varying reasons.

“I think it’s about each and every window, after we finish one window, we hit reset in some senses and we start to re-evaluate some of the good things that we did and then look at opportunities for players who — whether it be [due to] college and university in the fall, were not able to come in; and injury obviously plays a role along with all the other factors that come in that are out of your control,” said Busby Jr.

“We do have a very deep pool and so the challenges for us as a coaching staff is to continue to build on the core of players but also integrate a lot of new players into this group to make sure that the group is fresh, to make sure that they’re challenged and everybody understands that this is a competitive environment, and everybody has to earn the right to get on the plane for Brazil,” he added.