‘We’re trying to get best World Cup squad’
Reggae Girlz coach Donaldson says South Korea friendlies major step towards fine-tuning for global championship
Published:Wednesday | September 7, 2022 | 12:09 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
WITH THE first part of a long evaluation process complete, interim senior women’s head coach Lorne Donaldson has praised his team’s response to experiment tactically during their tour of South Korea, which he says will be beneficial in building the strongest team possible for next year’s World Cup.
Jamaica finished their two-game series winless, capped off by a 2-0 defeat by the ‘Taegeuk Ladies’ in their closed-door friendly yesterday at the Paju National Football Centre.
As promised, Donaldson had rung in the changes from Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Hwaseong Sports Complex Stadium, with established starters such as captain Khadija Shaw and Trudi Carter dropped to give some of the fringe players opportunities to impress the coaching staff and see how the team could adapt.
While the trip was void of wins on the field, Donaldson had called their trip a success, pleased with how open they have been in trying different variations in building a playing style that is their own, to get the best out of the team for next summer.
TOGETHERNESS
“They were receptive to what we are trying to do. We can argue about stuff. But we all agree, when it all comes down to it, we are all in this together,” Donaldson said. “We are just trying to get the best squad that we can get for the World Cup.”
While noting the inexperience of the new-look starting eleven mentally, he praised how they responded well throughout the game, and is encouraged that there was not a drop in quality of play even with the changes.
“We should have scored a couple of goals today, but that’s football. Just looking at what we came into, you can call it the Korean tsunami. It’s a good level, good football. We gave up, I would say, a couple of mental goals, not physical stuff, but mentally. Appealing for a handball, and then the Korean player did an unbelievable shot,” Donaldson assessed.
Continuing, he said: “I think [in] the second half we came back, we played some good stuff. We switched the formation into a 4-4-2. Some of the stuff we still wanted to try and look at, the play at this level, I think, it’s good; playing top-level teams and switching out, and we are right with them.”
Despite how the goals were conceded, Donaldson said he was encouraged by how well they defended, with no goals coming from the run of play.
“Defensively we were really good, because the goals that were scored were from set pieces. We didn’t give up goals that they broke us down. So I was happy with our defensive play,” Donaldson said.
“Going forward, we could have been more patient and a little bit more clinical around the box, especially yesterday. We had some chances. We should have finished but we didn’t. (I) hope we can build on that going into the next camp.”
That next international is set for October in the United States, according to Donaldson, with a plan for the Girlz to return to Jamaica in November to finish the international calendar year. Before then, he hopes to have his contract extension complete, which, he said previously in an interview with The Gleaner on August 31, would be discussed after the South Korean friendlies.