Players positive in defeat to Canada
MCALLEN, USA – The scoreline may have ended 2-0 in favour of Canada, but Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz took a moral victory from their Concacaf Women’s Championships Group B opener on Friday.
Despite Nichelle Prince’s brace in the 33rd and 79th minutes, the number 64-ranked Jamaicans took heart from the fact that they were able to limit the number five-ranked Canadians for the most parts.
That, along with the fact that the small crowd that was present inside the 10,000-capacity H.E.B.Park in Edinburg, Texas, was largely rooting for Jamaica as the underdogs for the entire match, gave the Girlz some degree of confidence going forward.
Still, the disappointment from the loss lingers, and Captain Konya Plummer and her team will now have to pick up the pieces and rebound with a positive result against Costa Rica tomorrow.
Currently the Girlz are in third place behind Costa Rica who hammered Cuba 8-0, and Canada.
“I felt that the team’s performance could have been better. as a team we didn’t keep much possession and defensively we made a lot of errors. Nevertheless, we came out with the mentality to win and we competed well,” Plummer told the Jamaica Observer.
“There are some positives that I took from the game because we played the number five-ranked team in the world and we were not [humiliated] and we got behind them several times. So, going into the Costa Rica game we know that we have to get three points and fix the problems we had in the last game,” she added.
Goalkeeper Sydney Schneider, who did extremely well to keep the Jamaicans in the game, echoed similar sentiments.
“I think we played with a lot of heart and passion which kept us going. our defence did very well, but I feel as if we could’ve gone forward a little more. I think we underestimated ourselves a bit and tried to defend and stay back too much,” she noted.
For midfielder Christina Chang, who was a second-half substitute, the team lacked composure on the ball.
“I think we worked hard off the ball but lacked a bit of composure once we won the ball. But we also must give credit to Canada; they are a very experienced team with lots of history in the game. They are the fifth-best team in the world for a reason, and with more of these experiences we will be able to continue to bridge this gap,” she declared.
Another second-half substitute, Sashana “Pete” Campbell lauded the team’s fighting spirit to the very end.
“I think we just lapsed a few times and that cost us the game,” she opined.
Meanwhile, holding midfielder Marlo Sweatman is optimistic that the Girlz will ride the waves of positivity and pick up a crucial result against Costa Rica.
“I believe we are all feeling positive from that game because we gave it our all… obviously we wanted to come out of the game with at least one point, but we are happy with the overall performance our team,” she said.
On the other side of the table, defending champions USA are scheduled to do battle against Panama and Mexico will face Trinidad and Tobago in Group A action in Cary, North Carolina, today.
— Sherdon Cowan