Jamaica shocked the footballing world on Wednesday morning when they held mighty Brazil 0-0 in their crucial FIFA Women’s World Cup Group F decider inside the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
With the surprising result Jamaica dumped South America champions Brazil out of the competition at the group stage for the first time in six cycles.
It was also the first time that a Caribbean team had advanced to the second round of a World Cup tournament, males or females.
Jamaica finished second in the group on five points, after a win and two draws, two behind group winners and the number five-ranked France, with the number eight-ranked Brazil third on four points. Panama finished bottom of the group without a point following three losses in their debut World Cup appearance.
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It was only the second World Cup appearance for Jamaica, having first qualified for the 2019 France Women’s World Cup when they lost all three group games to Italy, Brazil and Australia. They conceded 12 goals and managed a solitary strike from Havana Solaun against Australia.
Fast forward four years and the Reggae Girlz progressed on the strength of their defence, being just one of three teams (Switzerland and Japan) who are yet to concede a goal, a marvellous achievement from four years earlier when they conceded the second most number of goals.
On this occasion the Girlz have ridden on the backs of their strong, disciplined defence led by goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer, the Swaby sisters, Allyson and Chantelle at centre back and left wingback Deneisha Blackwood. Tiernny Wiltshire has played twice at right wingback, while Tiffany Cameron was employed as a starter at that position on one occasion.
The England-born Spencer has kept three “clean sheets” and was voted Visa Player of the Match against Brazil, denying the Brazilians eight attempts on goal.
The former England Under-19 and Under-20 goalkeeper and Tottenham Hotspur player was also instrumental in the games against Panama and France when she made four and five stops, respectively.
“We were well prepared defensively. I think we showed that against France and Panama in previous games how strong we are defensively. We are really hard to beat and we have been saying all along that if we don’t concede goals then it gives us a fighting chance to win games or to draw games and for us we defended brilliantly today and I was proud of every single player, the subs that came in were great as well, but we are a family, orientated in our group and we stick together no matter how tough times get and against Brazil we had our backs against the wall for the majority of the game and as you can see in the last five minutes we still had a chance on goal, so it just kind of shows you what kind of mentality that we do have,” she told the media.
She added: “I thought that we have been hugely underestimated, obviously with the noise that’s been going on outside of us players and the lack of matches that we had leading into the tournament I don’t think anyone took us seriously. As a group, as players and staff we know that we have a real togetherness and a family filled within our group. We are resilient and we had a point to prove and for months we’ve been saying it, we’re getting out of this group and we’ve proven just that and I’m proud of everyone for sticking together and having that mentality and mindset.”
Head coach Lorne Donaldson was elated with the result but was always confident in his team’s game plan.
“Obviously, Brazil had to score a goal so in typical Brazilian style they are going to attack, so we have to counter that. We tried to score too, but we knew we would have to play without the ball and just try to control the game without the ball.
“We have a fantastic custodian (Spencer) in goal, we trust her and that was the game plan to take away certain areas from Brazil and we tried to get one but we ended up 0-0, so I think job well done.”
The coach, a former National player for Jamaica, added that the players have never had so much fun and he thinks the country is awake to the history-making feat of the players.
He admitted that his plans were not to give up a goal and to take away the strengths of Brazil, “so we limited that and apparently it worked, sometimes we get lucky”, he said.
Donaldson employed 4-4-1-1 and 4-1-4-1 formations with the back four frustrating France and Brazil, in particular, even as they rode their luck at times.
The Swaby sisters were solid in the centre of defence, while Blackwood was fast and aggressive on the left side of defence and posed a threat with her set pieces and right-sided corners.
Wiltshire and Cameron were also solid and energetic, with Cameron, in particular, blessed with the speed to launch attacks on the right when given the chance to do so.
For the coach, this team has grown since its debut appearance four years ago.
“In 2019 we weren’t expected to be in the World Cup, we just actually got a group together, the programme was fairly new and we said, oh we’re in… we were younger, we didn’t have professional players like Rebecca and Drew Spence and those girls, the Swaby sisters were very young, now they’re very matured and you see what they can do; Deneisha Blackwood was 21 or something like that, even Bunny Shaw was 21, 22, so it was a very young team. Jody Brown was 16, and I think we were happy to be there, but this time around we said we are not just going to show up and from day one we said we want to get out of the group and everybody said it was impossible and we said the mentality of us is that nothing is impossible and that’s why we just stuck together.”
For the quarter-finals, Jamaica’s opponent is yet to be known, but Colombia leads that group ahead of Germany heading into the final games of the group stage.
But be it Colombia or Germany, the coach remains adamant that he takes it one game at a time and as soon as the rivals are known, then he will start focusing on them.
“I don’t know, we are just going to take it one game at a time and that’s our approach because when we started our preparation we didn’t look at Brazil, we looked at Brazil three days ago. We looked at Panama a few days before the game and we looked at France before we played against them, so whoever we play next that’s who we focus on.”
