Jamaica's Reggae Girlz defeated Morocco 1-0 in a friendly match at Galvin Park in Melbourne, Australia on Sunday, but the victory came at a cost as star forward Jody Brown suffered an injury that could keep her out for a few days ahead of their opening match against France in the FIFA Women's World Cup.
The Jamaicans were dominant for most of the match and should have gone ahead early after Khadija Shaw was fouled inside the box and was awarded a penalty. However, the Reggae Girlz leading striker fluffed her lines.
Jamaica made amends shortly after when Atlanta Primus scored in the 18th minute to give her team a 1-0 lead. The Jamaicans continued to create chances, but they were unable to add to their lead.
In the second half, Morocco came out with more urgency and put the Jamaican defense under pressure. However, the Reggae Girlz held firm and were able to see out the victory. After the match, Reggae Girlz head coach Lorne Donaldson was pleased with the team's performance, but he expressed concern about Brown's injury.
"Jody picked up a good knock," Donaldson said. "I thought she was done for the game, but she wanted to go on. I'm sure she's going to be out for a few days because it looked like it's a deep contusion. So we don't know yet. I'm not a doctor, but she might be hobbling around for the next couple days."
Despite the injury, Donaldson was encouraged by the team's performance overall.
"We did some good stuff," Donaldson said. "We moved the ball around well and we connected a lot more passes than I really expected. I thought we defended very well in the last 15 minutes, and that's something we've been working on. Overall, it was a good warm-up game."
The Reggae Girlz will now turn their attention to their opening match against France, which will be played on July 20. Donaldson is confident that his team will be ready for the challenge.
The victory over Morocco is a good confidence boost for the Reggae Girlz as they prepare for the World Cup but they will need to be at their best if they want to upset France on Sunday.
Concacaf Women’s Player of the Year, Khadija Shaw, and Florida State’s Jody Brown are among 24 women who were called up for a JFF camp, the federation announced on Saturday.
Shaw is coming off the best season of her career, so far, for Manchester City in which she scored 31 goals in 30 games in all competitions.
Brown has been instrumental in guiding the Seminoles to a 17-3-3 record so far this season.
The players will go into camp from June 11th to June 20th.
The full roster of players and staff is as follows:
Sydney Schneider, Rebecca Spencer, Liya Brooks, Allyson Swaby, Chantelle Swaby, Satara Murray, Konya Plummer, Deneisha Blackwood, Tiernny Wiltshire, Tiffany Cameron, Vyan Sampson, Peyton McNamara, Drew Spence, Atlanta Primus, Khadija Shaw, Jody Brown, Solai Washington, Kameron Simmonds, Kalyssa Van-Zanten, Trudi Carter, Rachel Jones, Paige Bailey-Gayle, Mikayla Dayes, Giselle Washington.
Crystal Walters (Team Manager), Lorne Donaldson (Head Coach), Laurie Thomas (Asst. Coach) Xavier Gilbert (Asst. Coach), Alyssa Whitehead (GK Coach), Sanford Carabin (Performance Analyst), Will Hitzelberger (Performance Staff), Dr. Gillian Lawrence (Team Doctor), Saundria Codling (Physiotherapist), Devin Lawson (Masseur), Omar "Twin" Folkes (Equipment Manager).
Despite another decent display, Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz suffered their third straight defeat in the FFA Nations Cup going down 3-0 to hosts Australia on Wednesday at the Newcastle International Sports Centre.
The victory for Australia meant that Australia would win the trophy in the four-team tournament that also involved Spain and the Czech Republic.
Goals from Katrina Gorry, Alex Chidiac and Caitlin Foord settled the matter for Australia against the Caribbean team that played well enough but for the second of three matches, failed to find the net.
The Reggae Girlz started well with Jody Brown, Spence and Kayla McCoy-McKenna posing threats that Australia managed to thwart. In defence, especially in the first quarter of the match, Jamaica were organized, repelling Australia’s attacks with aplomb.
Australia, however, broke the deadlock in the 28th minute with a 25m rocket from Gorry that flew past Rebecca Spencer in the Jamaica goal.
Growing in confidence, the hosts took a 1-0 lead into the half-time break.
Australia would double their lead in the 56th minute after a brilliant build up that saw Gorry take the ball to the byline before pulling it back to Chidiac who beats two defenders and power the ball into the roof of the net from five metres.
Australia sealed the issue in the 69th when Foord and Sam Kerr execute a 1-2 pass at the edge of the box around Jamaica’s defence after which Foord curled one from 20m past Spencer.
Jody Brown was denied a consolation three minutes from time when goalkeeper Arnold parried her shot from just inside the box around the upright.
Coach Lorne Donaldson believes Jamaica's Reggae Girlz needs to a better job at managing games following his team's 3-2 loss to the Czech Republic in the FFA Nations Cup in Australia on Sunday.
“There’s some stuff, but we’ve got to be able to manage games,” he said after Sunday’s loss. “We conceded in the last minute of the first half and in the second half, we decided to give up a goal because we’re thinking outside the box.
“Managing the game, especially when you’re tired is key and we were awful at that.”
In what was a much better showing than their 3-0 loss to Spain on Thursday, Jamaica conceded from the penalty spot in the 24th minute after Satara Murray was deemed to have fouled Kristyna Ruzickova, after she drove into the box.
Andrea Staskova converted from the spot.
Jamaica would pull level in the 42nd following some quality build-up play involving Havana Solaun, Drew Spence and Trudi Carter, whose pass found Jody Brown who buried her shot from just inside the box for her 14th international goal.
However, Klara Cahynova headed in from a corner in first-half stoppage time to give her team a 2-1 lead at the break.
Ten minutes after the resumption debutant Kameron Necole Simmons collected a rebound from a Spence attempt on goal and slotted into the bottom left corner to pull Jamaica level once again.
It was her first international goal for Jamaica.
However, Jamaica conceded in the 90th minute from a low cross that found Alena Peckova wide open at the far post for an easy tap-in and victory for the Czech Republic.
Jamaica will next play hosts Australia on February 22.
Trudi Carter and Khadijah Shaw each scored hat-tricks as Jamaica clobbered The Cayman Islands 9-0 on Saturday to set up a top-of-the-table showdown with the unbeaten Dominican Republic at Sabina Park on Tuesday.
Carter scored in the seventh, 16th and 17th minutes as Jamaica scored five in the first half against the home side playing at the Truman Bodden Stadium in Georgetown. Tamoy Phillips’ own goal in the 12th and Jody Brown’s goal in the 14th meant that Jamaica scored all five goals within the first 20 minutes of the match.
Miraculously, Jamaica failed to add to the scoreline in the remaining time before the interval.
The domination continued after the break as Shaw scored three within 11 minutes (54’, 56’, 65’) as Jamaica boosted their goal-difference advantage over the Dominican Republic which were only able to defeat Bermuda 1-0.
Kayla McCoy came on as a substitute for Shaw and added her name to the score sheet in the 88th minute to complete the rout.
The lopsided victory means Jamaica leads Group C with the maximum of nine points, the same as the Dominican Republic but Jamaica has scored 19 goals and conceded one in their three matches. The Dominican Republic has 14 from their three matches, which means that they need to defeat Jamaica on Tuesday to win the group and advance to the next round of competition.
A win or a draw for Jamaica means they advance.
Jamaica’s Reggae Girls defeated Grenada 6-1 to secure their second win from as many starts in Concacaf Women World Cup qualifying action at the Kirani James Stadium on Sunday.
Jamaica Reggae Girlz striker, Khadijah Shaw, bagged a brace as the team kicked off its World Cup qualification campaign in strong fashion with a 4-0 win over Bermuda at the National Stadium on Thursday.
After missing several presentable opportunities early on, against a game Bermuda unit, Jamaica finally took the lead in the 21st minute when Jodi Brown opened the scoring. Trudy Carter doubled the team’s lead 9 minutes later after booting the ball into the net from around 8 yards, profiting from a late run into the box and a searching cutback from Brown on the flank.
Shaw, who headed the ball onto the ball early on, looked to have earned a penalty when she was brought down midway the second half by Bermuda goalkeeper Micah Pond, but her protest was waved off by the referee.
The Manchester City forward made no mistake in the 79th minute, adding the team’s third after smashing the ball high into the net from close range, after the goalkeeper had parried an effort from winger Kalyssa Van Zanten. She added her second only moments from the final whistle after picking up the ball ten yards from goal, swiveling around her defender, and firing home.
The team will face Grenada in the second match of the round on Sunday.
Reggae Girl Jody Brown and her Florida State University team have won the NCAA Division 1 women’s soccer College Cup with a 4-3 win over Brigham Young University on penalties on Monday.
FSU rebounded from last year when they lost the championship game to Santa Clara University on penalties, and their coach, Mark Krikorian, referenced that game in his post-match interview.
“It feels quite nice to be sitting on this side of it. Last year, I thought that we were quite good and had some unfinished business that we needed to address,” said Krikorian.
Chinese midfielder, Yujie Zhao, scored the winning penalty kick for the Seminoles who won their third women’s national championship in history and second in the past four years.
“I had faith that we were going to win in the penalty kicks. I was super, super happy,” Zhao said.
Their goalkeeper, Cristina Roque, made two saves in the penalty shootout.
“Last year, it just didn’t go our way and everyone was behind me then, and I knew whatever happened this year, they were going to be behind me. It does feel better here,” said Roque.
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