Reggae Girlz striker and captain Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw says leading her country to a second straight World Cup “means a lot.”

The Manchester City striker was in fine form in Monday’s game, scoring a brace to help her side to a dominant 4-0 victory over the Haitians to secure a second consecutive World Cup berth.

“It means a lot, especially because throughout the beginning of the campaign we came under a lot of pressure. We just stood together and held our composure,” said Shaw.

“We knew that once we did that, at the end of the day we were going to be victorious and, I think, it just goes to show that we’re a small island, but we can do big things,” Shaw added.

Despite already booking their spot in Australia and New Zealand next year, their CONCACAF Women’s Championship campaign is not over with a semi-final against Canada on Thursday at 9:00pm Jamaica time (10:00pm EST). Defending world champions the USA will tackle Costa Rica in the other semi-final. 

Shaw outlined how the team can overcome the challenge of the unbeaten Canadians.

“We need to remain confident and stay positive. We also have to continue to support each other and communicate. If we continue to stick together and stay confident, I’m sure we can do big things,” Shaw said.

Reggae Girlz head coach Lorne Donaldson says his team simply wasn’t good enough in their 0-5 hammering by defending World Champions the USA in the Concacaf Women’s Championship on Thursday.

The Americans sprinted out to a 2-0 lead through goals from Sophia Smith in the fifth and eighth minutes before adding three more goals in the second half through Rose Lavelle (59^th), Kristie Mewis (83^rd) and Trinity Rodman (86^th) to complete the 5-0 demolition at the Estadio BBVA Bancomer.

“I didn’t think it’d take 10 minutes. We gave up two goals in six minutes and you’re not going to play the World Champs and expect anything out of the game playing the way we did. We weren’t good,” Donaldson said in a post-match press conference.

“The Americans are the best team in the world. When you play the champions at the top of their game, bad things will happen if you don’t play well and we didn’t,” Donaldson added.

The Reggae Girlz are now third in Group A with three points after two games with their third and final preliminary encounter coming against Haiti on Monday.

The Haitians also have three points and will go into that game with supreme confidence after a convincing 3-0 win over Mexico on Thursday.

The winner of Monday’s match will join the USA as automatic qualifiers to next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand while the loser will most likely have to book their spot through an inter-continental playoff.

“I think we’re going to be fine and ready,” Donaldson said.

Goals from Carli Lloyd, Lindsey Horan, Margaret Purce and Alex Morgan powered the world champions, the USA, to a 4-0 drubbing of Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz at the BBVA Stadium in Houston on Sunday night.

The result meant that Jamaica leaves the USWNT Summer Series with a win and a loss having defeated Nigeria 1-0 in their opening match last Thursday night.

The USA got off to a fast start and scored 24 seconds after the first whistle when a cross to the left of Jamaica’s 18-yard box found Lloyd who fired into the Jamaican goal from close range.

The USA were on the board again six minutes later when Christen Press, on a run into the box from the left, was brought down by Konya Plumber. Horan converted easily sending Jamaican keeper Sydney Schneider, the wrong way.

Purce added the USA’s third in the 22^nd minute when she ghosted in behind the Jamaican defence to receive a cross slotting in unchallenged past the advancing goalkeeper.

Jamaica produced a better performance in the second half partly due to the USA taking their foot off the gas and giving the Jamaicans more room to play.

However, Morgan scored a header in the 90^th minute to complete the lopsided victory.