Impressive Girlz hit four past Bermuda

Jamaica have not seen a home win at the National Stadium in over two years. Last night, the national senior women’s team made sure to rectify that error, getting the ideal start on their road to the 2023 Women’s World Cup

The Reggae Girlz cruised to a 4-0 win over Bermuda in their Group C opener in the first round of the 2023 Concacaf Women’s World Cup qualifiers. Jody Brown and Trudi Carter scored in the 21st and 30th minutes, respectively, and a Khadija Shaw double in the 78th and 90th minutes wrapped up the points as the Girlz marked their first game at home in two years and their first of the Vin Blaine era.

For his first starting 11, he gave Tottenham’s Rebecca Spencer the start in goal and Trudi Carter returned to the starting team for the first time in two years. Khadija Shaw was given the captain’s armband to start their journey to Australia-New Zealand. With limited time to address their defensive deficiencies, Blaine opted to pair the Swaby sisters, Chantelle and Allyson, in the centre of defence while Sashana Campbell continued as a full back.

Jamaica looked comfortable in the opening exchanges and had their first real chance on goal in the 11th minute. Jody Brown managed to break on the left-hand side, and her low cross managed to find Trudi Carter, whose shot cannoned off the crossbar and it seemed to have been behind the line but was not called, but the rebound could not be forced in.

FREE-KICK

Shaw, who had a shot deflected wide early, had her chance from a free-kick outside of the penalty area, but it went straight to the goalkeeper. But Jamaica would get their reward in the 21st minute as Shaw and Carter combined down the right-hand side and the former’s low cross got past the goalkeeper, and Brown was there to finish from close range.

While at times Bermuda tried to get behind the Jamaican backline, they were not able to cause the defence problems as Spencer was not forced into any saves. Jamaica would double their lead at the half-hour mark as Brown managed to recover Shaw’s low cross then crossed to Carter, who fired a low shot past goalkeeper Micah Pond.

The second half was more of the same from the Reggae Girlz as they pushed to further their advantage. It seemed, however, to be turning into a frustrating night for Shaw as she was booked for a challenge that she deemed to be 50-50 and was not given a penalty when she went down after a strong tackle by Pond in the box. However, she would get her reward in the 78th minute, pouncing on the rebound that Pond gave up after a low cross from Allyson Swaby found a Jamaica player in the box and had her shot saved.

Jamaica will face Grenada in their second game of the qualifiers on Sunday at 4 p.m

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com

Jamaica: Rebecca Spencer, Chantelle Swaby, Allyson Swaby, Sashana Campbell, Dominique Bond-Flasza (Tiernny Wiltshire 81st minute), Chinyelu Asher, Trudi Carter (Kiki Van Zanten 64th minute), Olufolasade Adamolekun (Mireya Grey 64th ninute), Kayla McCoy (Vyan Sampson 88th), Jody Brown (Logan McFadden 81st minute), Khadija Shaw