Following the Jamaica Under-17 women’s 6-0 thrashing of St Kitts and Nevis in the 2025 Concacaf Women’s Under-17 Qualifiers on Thursday, Head Coach Marlon Hylton said that he was pleased with the team’s performance. But he emphasised that their focus remains on securing a spot in the next round.

With this convincing win, Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz have put themselves in a strong position to advance to the next round of the competition. Their final Group E match is against hosts Nicaragua on Saturday at 7:00 pm at the National Stadium in Managua, where a draw will be enough to secure their spot in the next round.

“The mindset heading into the final group stage match against Nicaragua is positive, and we are focused. The team and staff know the importance of securing the point needed to top the group,” Hylton told the
Jamaica Observer.

When asked about how his team will handle the scenario of needing just a point to advance, Hylton replied, “These players know what is at stake and how important it is to advance to the next round. Again, it’s about recovery, doing a reflection of the game, seeing what went well for us and areas we need to improve on.”

He added, “We win or draw, and we are into the next final round — that’s the focus. That’s the reward.”

Kiana Wilson was the star of the show against St Kitts and Nevis, scoring a hat-trick in the fourth, 58th, and 61st minutes at the National Stadium in Nicaragua. Briana Turner (33rd minute), Ella Provost-Heron (47th minute), and Shauntai Pryce (73rd minute) also got on the scoresheet.

“It feels incredibly satisfying to secure such a dominant 6-0 win. The plan was to have them on the back foot as early as possible, and we got that early goal,” Hylton noted.

Hylton attributed the team’s dominant performance in the opening match to their ability to maintain possession of the ball.

“We figured that once we keep possession of the ball and play to our strength, we would have got the goals needed. The most important phase now for these players is to have them recover for the next game,” he added.

Hylton said tactical adjustments were made during the game.

“We saw in the first half where we needed to be a little bit more patient, also to move the ball around much faster when we entered the final third. We had our talk at half-time and made some adjustments. There will always be areas to improve on, as I said before, we will assess and reflect and improve on these,” he explained.

The 2025 Concacaf Under-17 Women’s qualifying features a new two-round format, with the winners of the six groups and the two best second-place finishers advancing to the final round. They will join the four top-ranked teams in the region — Canada, Haiti, Mexico, and the United States in the final round.

The final round will be played in a group format, consisting of three groups of four teams each. The teams are to play in a round-robin format between March 31 to April 6. The three group winners and the best second-place finisher from the final round will qualify for the 2025 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup.

— Ruddy Allen