This article is a part of the Guardian’s Women’s World Cup 2023 Experts’ Network, a cooperation between among the greatest media organisations from the 32 nations who certified. theguardian.com is working previews from two nations every day within the run-up to the match kicking off on 20 July.
Overview
They’re now not the one Caribbean workforce to qualify for the Ladies’s World Cup, however Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz would be the first from the area to make a second consecutive look on the finals. Ranked No 43 on the planet, they’re a way more formidable group than that of 2019 and the squad options a number of US and England-born gamers with Jamaican heritage who weren’t part of the workforce which made a historic look in France.
The squad is much like the one which competed within the qualifiers, successful all however two video games – a 5-0 group stage loss to america and a 3-0 semi-final loss to Canada – on the Concacaf Ladies’s Championship in Mexico. Throughout that match, Jamaica registered a 1-0 win over the host nation and in addition beat Haiti 4-0 and Costa Rica 1-0 on their approach to a third-place end.
In complete, the Jamaicans scored 30 objectives and conceded 10 between the primary section of qualifying and the Concacaf championship and had been once more led by the talismanic striker Khadija “Bunny” Shaw, who ended the qualifiers with 12 objectives.
Since then, the pinnacle coach Lorne Donaldson has introduced in a number of younger prospects in 19-year-old goalkeeper Liya Brooks, 18-year-old Solai Washington, 19-year-old Kameron Simmonds and 22-year-old Peyton McNamara, all of whom impressed within the lead-up to the World Cup.
Jamaica will depend on their pace opening up opposing defences, notably from the huge areas, particularly with the addition of fleet-footed gamers Washington, Simmonds and Kalyssa van Zanten, who might be deadly when coming off the bench.
Nonetheless, Shaw, as all the time, would be the focus within the assault and, very similar to she did on the 2019 showpiece when she assisted Havana Solaun to attain a historic first objective towards Australia, she may make a distinction towards their extra illustrious Group F opponents if is she is ready to get on the ball shut sufficient to objective.
The defence has not all the time been the workforce’s sturdy level and whereas Donaldson and his assistants have executed their greatest to beef up the backline, it mainly stays the identical as that of 2019, except for Tottenham goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer and right-back Tiernny Wiltshire. Sturdy performances might be anticipated from the previous captain Konya Plummer, who just lately returned from maternity depart, however is trying raring to go once more. A lot can also be anticipated of her fellow defender Allyson Swaby, who is powerful within the air and resolute on the bottom.
No doubt Jamaica stay one of many largest underdogs on the World Cup, however they’re definitely not going to the match accepting defeat, particularly with the 2019 expertise now beneath their belts.
The coach
Lorne Donaldson was born and raised in Jamaica the place he began his enjoying profession at Kingston Faculty and Cavalier FC, earlier than shifting to america the place he entered Metropolitan State University of Denver (he was inducted into MSU Denver’s Corridor of Fame in 1995). He went on to play for the Denver Kickers, the place he gained the 1983 National Amateur Cup, and Jamaica.
He later began his teaching profession as an assistant at Metro State Roadrunners in 1983 and has not appeared again since, managing Colorado Foxes, Colorado Rapids and Actual Colorado Foxes, alongside the way in which.
Donaldson was launched to the nationwide girls’s programme on the advice of the ambassador for Jamaican girls’s soccer Cedella Marley in 2014, together with earlier head coach Hue Menzies and the 2 guided the Reggae Girlz to their historic qualification in 2019.
Each later left the programme for varied causes that concerned the Jamaica Soccer Federation, however Donaldson expressed a willingness to return offered the circumstances had been totally different.
In July final yr, he changed Vinimore “Vin” Blaine on the helm, a number of weeks forward of the essential Concacaf Championship, after the gamers launched a letter expressing dissatisfaction with Blaine’s management.
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Star participant
The Guardian’s first female Footballer of the Year in 2018, the primary participant from the Caribbean to win the Concacaf Participant of the Yr Award in 2022, and Jamaica’s all-time main scorer with 56 objectives, Khadija “Bunny” Shaw’s profession is considered one of bumps, bruises and naturally, super success.
The 6ft striker’s physicality and pace of thought had set her up for a blinding profession from a younger age – aged 14 she performed for Jamaica’s under-15, under-17 and under-20 groups. She made her debut for the senior facet on 23 August 2015, scoring as soon as in a 6-0 win over the Dominican Republic. She has misplaced siblings to violence and accidents however used these tragedies to gas her ardour for soccer.
Through the 2019 World Cup in France, Shaw signed a two-year contract with FC Bordeaux and ended her second league season with 22 objectives and 7 assists in 20 matches, successful the highest goalscorer award. She then joined Manchester City the place the now 26-year-old continues to point out her class, scoring 31 objectives in 30 video games final season and being named the membership’s participant of the yr.
Rising star
At 18 years previous, the US-born midfielder Solai Washington is the youngest member of the squad and is among the up-and-coming gamers to look out for on the World Cup. Nonetheless in highschool going into her senior yr, Washington first joined the setup at a camp in Florida this yr and hasn’t appeared again. She possesses nice capacity and works laborious on and off the ball in a fashion that belies her age.
Do you know?
13 of Jamaica’s 23-member squad shall be making their first World Cup appearances. That quantity consists of the 5 England-born gamers – Rebecca Spencer, Vyan Sampson, Atlanta Primus, Drew Spence and Paige Bailey-Gayle. Additionally of word is that Cheyna Matthews, like she did in 2019, has returned shortly after giving beginning to make the World Cup squad.
Ladies’s soccer in Jamaica got here to life in 1991 when the Reggae Girlz performed their first worldwide match towards Haiti, dropping 1-0. Since then, they’ve grow to be one of many high groups within the area, and at the moment boast their second highest ever Fifa rating at 43. They achieved their highest of 42 final yr.
There have been bumps on the highway, nonetheless, and in 2010 the ladies’s programme in addition to the ladies’s Olympic programme had been disbanded by the Jamaica Soccer Federation (JFF). At that time, they had been at their lowest rating of 128 however the nation was later faraway from Fifa’s world rankings after three years of inactivity.
The programme was restarted in 2014 with the assist of Cedella Marley, the daughter of the late Bob Marley. Marley’s sturdy fundraising efforts finally helped the Reggae Girlz obtain their historic World Cup qualification.
Sensible purpose on the World Cup
Whereas it appears a frightening activity for Jamaica to get out of Group F and into the final 16, they’re anticipated to show extra aggressive than they did in 2019 and the collective objective is to at the very least take factors off considered one of France or Brazil. If they’ll do this, confidence is excessive that they may get the higher of Panama of their ultimate group sport. So the practical purpose for the workforce recognized for its cussed dedication and keenness is to show their doubters fallacious by getting past the group stage.
Written by Sherdon Cowan for Sportsmax.tv
