Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz made a winning start to their CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Group C action when they blanked Bermuda 4-0 at Kingston’s National Stadium on Thursday evening.
Captain Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, with a second-half brace, and Jody Brown and Trudi Carter got on the scoresheet for the home side.
In the group’s other game played on Wednesday, the Dominican Republic swamped Grenada 9-0 to assume leadership of the group on goal difference.
The Reggae Girlz will depart Jamaica on Friday for Grenada, whom they meet on Sunday in the second round of games. Bermuda will host the Cayman Islands on Tuesday, as the Dominican Republic will be idle.
Jamaica will play its remaining games against the Dominican Republic and the Cayman Islands in April.
Played in front of fewer than 500 spectators from 2,500 fully vaccinated that the Jamaican Government approved, the Girlz went in front on 21 minutes when Brown blasted home from close range.
The lead was doubled on the half-hour mark when Brown turned provider for Carter inside the box to rifle a grounder past the hapless goalkeeper.
Captain Shaw was criminally denied a penalty late in the second half after being brought down in the box by the Bermudian goalkeeper. But she kept her cool to blast home left-footed from a rebound close to goal minutes later. She would complete her brace in the last three minutes of time added, turning her marker inside the box after receiving a pass from the right before slamming home another left-footer.
The preliminary round qualifiers comprise the following groups:
Group A: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Antigua and Barbuda, and Anguilla
Group B: Costa Rica, Guatemala, Saint Kitts and Nevis, US Virgin Islands, and Curacao
Group C: Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Bermuda, Grenada, and the Cayman Islands
Group D: Panama, El Salvador, Barbados, Belize, and Aruba
Group E: Haiti, Cuba, Honduras, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the British Virgin Islands
Group F: Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, Nicaragua, Dominica, and the Turks and Caicos Islands
