Victory charge
MCALLEN, USA — Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz will be seeking to revive their hopes of progressing to the next round at the 10th edition of the Concacaf Women’s Championship here when they square off with Costa Rica at the H.E.B Park in Edinburg, Texas, today.
The game scheduled for 5:00 pm (same time as Jamaica), will precede the 7:30 pm Group B feature between the world’s number five-ranked Canada and Cuba, ranked number 19 in Concacaf and 85th by FIFA.
Costa Rica currently lead the four-team standings with three points and a healthy goal difference over Canada who are also on three points.
Today’s contest represents another tough assignment for the Hue Menzies-coached Reggae Girlz, who require at least a point to ensure they remain in contention in the race to secure qualification for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
After having their recent unbeaten run ended by Canada in a 2-0 scoreline on Friday, the Reggae Girlz ranked 64th internationally and seventh in Concacaf, are cautiously optimistic about resuming winning ways against the Confederation’s number four team Costa Rica, who are ranked 33rd by FIFA.
“Obviously there are times when you have to motivate yourself from a loss and I think the ladies are responding well. I just had a conversation with our fitness coach [Will Hitzelberger] and he thought the mood was great and their levels were good.
“So everything seems to be good, we know this is just another game that we have to get a result from to move forward, and so we have to go in the game confident. We feel our athletic ability is going to cause some problems for them, so hopefully we go out there and execute,” Menzies told the J amaica Observer yesterday.
Despite narrowly going down 1-2 to their opponents when the two teams last met at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, Menzies pointed out that the team has drawn some motivation from that encounter.
“We felt like we were on top of that game and obviously we were missing some key players, so it gives some motivation that we can get a result here.
“But we are expecting another good competition; obviously Costa Rica is a good team, very experienced because they have been in the last World Cup, so our girls just have to get up for the game because both of us are in a position where we can go home or move on,” the tactician noted.
Menzies and his assistants Lorne Donaldson and Andrew Price were yesterday scheduled to conduct a 5:00 pm session where they were expected to make a decision on a final starting team.
But based on observation, the coaching staff will stick with their customary 4-3-3 formation with possibly one or two changes to the previous line up.
If so, Sydney Schneider should again start in goal shadowed by captain Konya Plummer, Dominique Bond-Flasza, Lauren Silver, while Toriana Patterson could replace Allyson Swaby in that back four.
Chinyelu Asher, Giselle Washington and Marlo Sweatman could again be charged with marshalling the midfield with the three-prong attack again involving Deneisha Blackwood, Trudi Carter and Khadija Shaw.
“We just have to go over some film and sort some things out, then we will see how the players look in training and then we come up with a formidable line up, to counteract some things after studying the film.
“So it is possible that there will be personnel changes, we have always done that throughout the qualifiers where we rest players because we feel like we have quality players here who can take us through to the next round,” Menzies ended.
Meanwhile, defending champions USA were yesterday scheduled to do battle with Panama, while Mexico and Trinidad and Tobago were set to lock horns in Group A, in Cary, North Carolina.
Following the group stage, all matches will be played at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas.
The top-three teams in the tournament will automatically qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, with the fourth-place team having an opportunity to secure qualification through a playoff with Argentina of CONMEBOL.
The winners of the two semi-final encounters on October 14 will automatically qualify for the World Cup, as well as the winners of the third-place game. Both the third-place playoff and final are scheduled to take place on October 17.