Back to the drawing board
Paramaribo, Suriname — Having successfully navigated their way through the first phase of qualifiers, Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz Head Coach Lorne Donaldson said it’s back to the drawing board as they look forward to the second round of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) World Cup qualifiers.
The Jamaicans were scheduled to arrive in the island last evening with a sense of accomplishment, but have a lot more work to do leading up to the next round. The Girlz finished atop the table on maximum nine points, ahead of Barbados with six points, and thus securing the other qualifying spot from Group Four.
At the completion of the CFU round, the two top teams from the Caribbean will advance to the CONCACAF round slated for November. These two teams from the CONCACAF stage, plus another team from the play-offs will then represent the federation at the 2016 World Cup in Jordan.
The young Reggae Girlz were a cut above their opponents, tallying 17 goals from the three games. They got the better of Barbados 2-1 and hammered St Lucia 14-0, before clipping the hosts 1-0 on Sunday.
However, Donaldson lamented the lack of quality displayed in the competition, despite the level of authority asserted by his team. He argued that every game played is an important part of the learning process and he is hoping to see significant improvement going forward.
“It is good to accomplish three wins from three games, but I would still say the region is way behind, and we have to get competition that can test us. We want to play teams that are equal to or better than us, teams that we can learn from, football-wise,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“That is what we are working on; just a little stuff in the game that we don’t understand. We are hoping to get them to that level so it’s not constant coaching, but they can even share some stuff with us, and we say great idea, go ahead and do it.”
The team started out weak, but improved steadily throughout with the defensive unit doing well enough to concede only one goal. Their passing ability from the training sessions came to the fore occasionally, but clinical finishing in the attacking third was lacking.
“I think they have learnt a lot on the football field; they have improved on some of the things they have done from the first game, and hopefully they can carry that over and we can look back at it and pave a way forward,” Donaldson noted.
And as they seek to bolster the team’s performances, Donaldson revealed that a few more overseas-based players have been confirmed to join the group. He also remains optimistic that they will be able to camp overseas prior to the start of the second round.
“We don’t think our team is strong in certain areas, so there are some players that we have identified that we can get them in the system, so we can keep on improving. But the main focus is to help the local-based players improve their game,” he explained.
He continued: “I am still hoping that we can get a camp in the US; I think we have to so we can actually play some teams over there. Same age club teams that are better than us, so they can be ready to switch and adapt to different environments.
“The other part is we start exposing them for colleges to come and look at them, and that is what we want. We want every single player from the Under-17s to get into a college and not necessarily a junior college — we want them to go right into a four-year college and start filling out a career as well as being a soccer player.”