Hubert Lawrence | Credit to the Reggae Girlz coaching staff

If I could have jumped into my TV on October 17 and emerged on the touchline in Texas, where Jamaica was playing Panama for the right to go to the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup, I would have. The mission would have been to stop the goalkeeper swap that eventually paved the way for the Reggae Girlz to France next year. Sydney Schneider, the starting keeper, had done well, I thought. Replacing her for the penalty shoot-out seemed to serve no good purpose.

I can hear myself and the rest of the Doubting Thomases shouting, "Coach, what are you doing?" Thankfully, my TV teleporter didn't work and Nicole McClure walked out on the field before the final extra-time whistle and just in time for penalties.

"She is not an ordinary goalkeeper," veteran coach Wendell Downswell once said of McClure, who has played semi-professional football in Sweden. Schneider had played well throughout the tournament, but she knew and Jamaica's coach in Texas, Hue Menzies, knew.

In retrospect, the Panamanians knew, too. McClure walked into the goal with an air of assurance that may have intimidated them. Perhaps while McClure was warming up, she conceded twice to well-placed shots.

Then, as the pressure dropped on the ladies in white, she easily repelled slow and more central-placed shots. At the same time, Deneisha Blackwood, Ashleigh Shim, Christina Chang and Dominique Bond-Flasza scored the goals that punched the Reggae Girlz's ticket to France.

Reminiscent of Tim Krol's heroics for Holland in the 2014 World Cup, McClure was the hero.

As Bond-Flasza said, "It is something that we were preparing for, knowing that this could have happened, and we were successful because we had prepared for the moment."

For me, that is a tribute to the coaching staff led by Menzies, and his assistants Lorne Donaldson and Andrew Price, goalkeeper coach Hubert Busby, fitness trainer Will Hitzelburger, and assistant Jason Henry.

With the match done a week ago, the goalkeeper change hasn't lost a watt of brilliance for me. That decision ensured that all the work to reach that Concacaf third-place play-off by the players and staff wasn't in vain.

The success by the Girlz came at a perfect time. On Sunday, super sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser -Pryce had been honoured at the unveiling of a statue in her honour. On Monday, National Heroes Day, super swimmer Alia Atkinson was awarded the Order of Distinction, Commander class, the sixth-highest honour Jamaica bestows.

When you step back, you realise that in a week like that, the Girlz simply couldn't fail.

Those who have supported the team so far can take a bow, with special mention to Cedella Marley. It's a lesson to everyone. It takes cash to care.

UNDERFUNDED SPORTS

The Girlz's success has sparked a debate about whether female sports are underfunded. The truth is that most sports are underfunded and in these tight economic times, many sports will suffer. The ones that flourish are those which guarantee the sponsor bang for his buck. That's the magic ingredient.

Track and field, with 70 years of success on its rÈsumÈ, has lost sponsorship for its National Senior Championships and its annual awards ceremony relatively recently. That's the staggering reality.

Fret not. The Girlz will get their due as they follow the 1998 Boyz on the Road to France. As patriots and business entities, sponsors will see the Girlz as a great cause to support, and that rationale will hopefully cover the cost of practice games, training camps and scouting trips as coach Menzie readies the team for France.

- Hubert Lawrence contributed to Reggae Road to Soccer Glory,' the Jimmy Carnegie/Mike Henry book on Jamaica's successful 1998 World Cup campaign.