CATHERINE HALL, St James — It’s back to work on the training field for Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz today as they get ready for what will be their biggest day on the football field in the semi-finals of the CONCACAF tournament on Thursday at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.

The Jamaicans earned a well-deserved day off yesterday and were allowed to enjoy the beach that they had only seen since arriving in Montego Bay a week ago, but never got close to.

However after splish-splashing around yesterday, it’s back to business today as they would know that their job is only half-way completed with them topping Group A of the CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship. The hosts had wins over El Salvador and Haiti and a historic 1-1 draw against Mexico on Sunday to top the Group with seven points.

But they have the biggest hurdle of all still to come with a mega semi-final showdown with either USA or Canada, CONCACAF’s powerhouses. A win on Thursday would propel the Girlz into the history books as they would become the first Jamaican team into a women’s World Cup.

After the draw against Mexico, the first time in three meetings at this level, head coach Merron Gordon said he was “really confident” the girls were on the doorsteps of creating history.

“My guiding philosophy is that to be the best you got to beat the best and we got two tough teams we [are] going to play. To go to Costa Rica, we got to beat one of them,” he said.

Jamaicans got off to a slow start against Mexico in front of a massive turnout at the Montego Bay Sports Complex where entrance fees have been waived, and Gordon conceded the pressure to create history against Mexico could have affected the way the players started the game.

“We were up against a quality team, especially a team we had never got a point from in the history at this level, and that might have been what played on the girls’ minds so they came out slow, but they got better as the game went on,” he said.

Seven of the girls in the team were part of the Under-20 team that won the Caribbean Football Union tournament a week before in Kingston, but Gordon dismissed the claim that physical fatigue was the reason for the sluggish start on Sunday.

“We were terrible in the first half,” he said bluntly, “but I don’t think fatigue had anything to do with that. It was more mental than anything else and we made some tactical changes as well and we encouraged them at half-time,” he explained.

With the extra day of rest, he said the team would be back to full fitness come Thursday. “These girls are ready to go and the medical staff will work on them,” Gordon noted.