Reggae Girlz sets sights on Panama, as Netherlands hold US 1-1 in feisty contest

July 27, 2023

Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz had their second training session at their base camp in Melbourne on Wednesday evening (Australia time) since their historic 0-0 result with Group J favourites France last Sunday morning.

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The Girlz had their first session on Tuesday evening and plans are for the team to depart Melbourne for Perth on Thursday afternoon, ahead of Saturday morning’s clash with CONCACAF neighbour Panama at the NIB Stadium in Perth at 7:30.

Included in the training sessions was captain Khadija Shaw, who will be suspended for Saturday’s game, having received two yellow card cautions in Sunday’s game against France.

The Jamaican delegation had appealed yellow card bookings to FIFA, but the case was dismissed.

Shaw, the Manchester City forward, knows the importance of Saturday’s game and says her team knows the rival very well, but it was for the Girlz to focus on themselves and let the rest take care of itself.

“That’s going to be the game to follow up this one, it’s going to be a big challenge for us and we’ve played Panama multiple times before so we know what they have to offer and I think ultimately we just have to focus on ourselves, go out there and build from this result that we got, keep our confidence high, work for each other as always and hopefully at the end of the day we can get the job done.”

The burly Shaw, who was engaged in a physical battle with the French defence, admitted to being battered and bruised at the end of the contest where she received her marching orders in time added in the second half.

“Physically I’m pretty banged up, it was a very physical game and for me I’m a very physical player and I strive off that, but I think the game, within itself, could have been better protection-wise for me, but for me I just try to focus on what I can control and that’s helping the team, whether that be my hold up play, whether driving trying to get fouls or throw-ins or set pieces or stuff like that because I know offensively it was going to be a big effort. So whatever we could do at the top of the pitch to help our defence that’s what we tried to do and for me personally it’s a difficult moment for me right now because it’s my first red card, but looking back at the game I’m going to take the positives from it, which is our first point at the World Cup and my overall performance.”

The Jamaican captain reiterated that she’s always been a player to give of her best whenever she crosses that white line on the field.

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“Every time I go out on the pitch I always try to give my hundred per cent and try to help the team and be the vocal point and the leader that I know I can be and at the end of the day for me my ultimate goal is more than just scoring goals, it is to help the team with the scruffy plays, the second balls, defensively, set pieces defensively and stuff like that, so to know that my overall effort, it is something that I can feel proud of.

“I walked off the pitch not in the best way but I walked off knowing that I did the best that I could, so yeah, I think that’ something I could look back on and take the positives from it.”

At their first appearance at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France in 2019, the Reggae Girlz lost all three games and opening against the number-five ranked nation in the World on Sunday, many had expected to the Girlz to surrender meekly.

But the Jamaican captain said they had spoken and planned for the game well and they believed they could have gotten a decent result if they executed team plans well.

“As a team we spoke about the game, we had a while to prepare for the game, we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy game, we know defensively we had to be solid, and attacking wise we knew when we got the ball we had to make the right decisions, but yeah, overall we dug deep as a team, we had our difficult moments where they had multiple corners, transitional moments, but like I said we feed off each other in different aspects and actions of the game and I think ultimately the result speak for itself.”

She says outsiders looking in on the team can see “we’re always together, we’re one family, we feed off each other’s energy and when you have that chemistry and that relationship with your teammates, whether that means if one of my teammates is out of position and I can cover for her I’m going to do that and like I said, that’s just how we’ve been and we’ve always believed in ourselves and our capabilities”.

The Jamaican will need to believe in themselves when they face Panama on Saturday and a victory could push the top-ranked Caribbean side to the brink of qualification to the second round of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Tournament in Australia and New Zealand.

Panama were beaten 4-0 by a slick-moving Brazilian team in their debut game, but they are expected to prove more competitive against Jamaica.

Meanwhile, four-time champions United States was forced to come from behind to earn a 1-1 result with the Netherlands in their top-of-the-table Group E clash on Wednesday night.

In a repeat of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in France, the two-time defending champions were made to second class for much of the first half by the classy Dutch team, which took the lead on 17 minutes from a sweet right-footed strike by Jil Roord on the top of the penalty area.

The Americans pulled level on 62 minutes through a firm header by Lindsey Horan in a feisty and physical affair in which Savannah DeMelo was fortunate to escape a red card sanction from VAR, which appeared not to have called the referee’s attention to a blatant strike to an opponent off the ball.

The United States finished the stronger of the two sides and could point to wastefulness for not walking away with all three points to add to the three they won in their 3-0 victory over Vietnam.

Another of CONCACAF’s six teams, Canada, lead Group B with four points after a come-from-behind 2-1 win over the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.

The North Americans had played out a 0-0 result with Nigeria in the tournament opener when veteran striker Christine Sinclair missed a first-half penalty.

Costa Rica has been eliminated from Group C, having lost two games from as many matches. The Central Americans lost 0-3 to Spain in their tournament opener before losing 2-0 to Japan in their latest game.

Both Spain and Japan have amassed six points each, thus ensuring that Costa Rica will only play their final Group C match against Zambia before packing their bags for home.

Haiti did a reasonable job in holding England to just a 0-1 loss in their lone contest to date. They will face China on Friday.

Group Stage

Group A