Coach pleased with progress of Young Girlz
...team now braces for mighty USA in quarter-final showdown
Jamaica’s Head coach Dane chambers has expressed pleasure with the progress made by his young Reggae Girlz and believes they are now firing on all cylinders as they head into the concacaf Women’s Under-17 championship quarter-finals.
The young Reggae Girlz, who ended the group stages with two wins and a draw, added another win to their tally by defeating Caribbean neighbours Cuba 4-0 in roundof-16 action in the Dominican Republic on Sunday.
And Chambers was left beaming about the manner of the team’s performance in difficult underfoot conditions, as braces from captain Dannique Wilson, Natoya Atkinson and Shaneil Buckley were enough to dispatch the Cubans.
“I’m pleased with the girls’ performance. The condition was very hard to play in due to the rains earlier in the day and even a little during the game, but It always good to make some changes and still get a positive result,” Chambers told the Jamaica Observer.
“As you can see, the performances keep getting better. It took us a while to organise and settle yesterday (Sunday), but in the second half we made some adjustments and we really dominated by putting the ball down on the surface and moving it around to our wider spaces.
“That, for me, was another demonstration of the girls’ ability to adjust to any given condition because the condition was very hard to play in, but we played as a team in possession and out of possession,” he added.
With a quarter-final date with powerhouse and defending champions United States now set for Wednesday, confidence is high in the young Reggae Girlz’s camp and they are hoping to build on the momentum gathered so far.
“We look forward to every game we play, and this one is no different,” Chambers declared.
“We are upbeat, the girls are in good spirit and the fact that we are up against the defending champions, I don’t think we need any more motivation than that. I told the girls that these are the occasions that they live for, to play against the best, and [that] if they want to be the best, they will have to beat the best,” he said.
On that note, Chambers welcomed the two day break to recuperate and refocus ahead of what will be their biggest assignment of the tournament to date.
“It [the two day break] comes at a good time. Now we can get some rest, do some assessment and some reflections with the coaching staff. So basically, we’ll just focus on ourselves, recuperate and then get back to work to put a plan together with the young ladies ahead of our game on Wednesday,” the tactician stated.
Though their tails have been up since the 1-1 stalemate with the other North American powerhouse Canada, Chambers is under no illusion that the United States contest will be the same level of competition.
In fact, unlike Canada, who have scored 20 goals and conceded two, United States have so far tallied 49 with their cleansheet still intact.
Still, Chambers and his team are dreaming about the possibility of upsetting the applecart which would push them that much closer to a historic World Cup qualification at age-group level. Jamaica’s best attempt at this tournament was a fourthplaced finish in 2013.
“Our chances of creating an upset is there; we have to just go there follow instructions, concentrate for the entire match, apply ourselves and work hard. We must go there and work hard for the entire game on Wednesday,” Chambers stressed.
At the conclusion of the event, the two finalists and third-place finisher will qualify for the 2022 Fifa Under-17 Women’s World Cup in India in October.