Panama booked their spot in the CONCACAF Under-17 Women’s Championship by securing a 1-0 victory over hosts Jamaica in their qualifying fixture at Sabina Park in Kingston on Sunday.
Due to the withdrawals of Anguilla and Grenada from qualifying Group E, Jamaica and Panama played a pair of fixtures on Friday and Sunday to determine who would progress to the main tournament set for next year.
The teams played out a 1-1 draw at the same venue on Friday before the Panamanians came out on top on Sunday.
Panama’s goal on Sunday came through Analia Arosemena seven minutes before halftime.
Panama got to the Round of 16 at last year's tournament while Jamaica made it to the quarterfinals.
Head coach of Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Girlz, Hugh Bradford, says his team is ready ahead of their first game of the Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship Qualifiers.
The young Reggae Girlz will tackle Anguilla at Sabina Park on Saturday before taking on Grenada on the 28th and Panama on the 30th at the same venue. All three games start at 6:00pm Jamaica time.
Bradford says the team is as ready as they can be with the time they’ve had to prepare for the fixtures.
“They are as ready as they are going to be with the time we have to train,” Bradford told SportsMax.tv.
“I saw progress in being with them through the week but that’s the time we had so that’s as ready as we are,” he added.
When questioned about the style of play his coaching staff would like to see from the girls, Bradford preferred a possession-based approach.
“We would like to see them possess the ball and keep it going from our end to the other end. We would like them to be able to move the ball around and be in control of the tempo of the game,” he said.
Getting through these qualifiers is the first step for the team to match what they were able to achieve in last year’s Concacaf Women’s U-17 Championship where they got all the way to the quarterfinals before losing 0-4 to eventual champions, USA.
Bradford was not with that group but his hope is that they can at least match what was done in 2022.
“My hope is that we keep making it through the rounds,” he said.
Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz made history at the recently concluded FIFA Women’s World Cup where they became the first Caribbean team to advance to the Round of 16 before losing 0-1 to Colombia.
“Absolutely,” was Bradford’s response to whether or not his team was inspired by the exploits of their senior counterparts.
“They were very excited to watch the senior team play and so I’m sure they’re coming out wanting to do something similar but football is funny so you have to see how things go but they are definitely inspired by them,” he added.
Jamaica will be in Group E of the qualifiers alongside the aforementioned Grenada, Anguilla and Panama. The winners of the group will advance to the 2024 Concacaf Under-17 Women’s Championship.
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