‘Qualification still in our control’

Interim senior women’s head coach Lorne Donaldson says that despite Jamaica’s heavy defeat to the United States in their second game of the Concacaf Women’s Championship, he is pleased about still being in control of their World Cup qualification destiny, with one game left to play in the group stage.

The Reggae Girlz were drubbed 5-0 on Thursday evening in Monterrey, Mexico, thanks to goals from Sophia Smith in the fifth and eighth minutes as well as strikes from Rose Lavelle in the 59th minute, Kristie Mewis in the 82nd minute and Trinity Rodman in the 86th minute, fuelling a dominant display with Jamaica offering little in the attack.

Donaldson said that the two quick goals three minutes apart put them out of their rhythm and their poor defending did not help their cause.

“We gave up two early goals. We didn’t defend well. It was a tough game. The USA played very well. We didn’t play very well. If the USA is playing well and we are not on top of our game, you are asking for trouble and we see the result,” Donaldson said.

When asked about options in changing players to try and impose a more defensive unit at 2-0 to stop to improve defensively, Donaldson said that they had hoped that they could find their way back into the contest.

“At 2-0 you are still looking at goal differential. We were hoping that we would get one back. We pulled Jody Brown and put a couple of players at half-time. We can second-guess now but we still have to play the game, and you are playing the world champions,” Donaldson said.

LACK OF PRACTICE

Donaldson said that their lack of practice games may have shown in their performances as well as their fitness. However, having secured three points in their opening win against Mexico, Donaldson says that they are in the ideal scenario that they wanted, needing a win against Haiti to book an automatic berth into the FIFA Women’s World Cup

“We have three points, we control our own destiny. If somebody had (told me) coming into the tournament that the last game (would be meaningful), everybody would have taken it. Some of the stuff we are going through are growing pains because we didn’t have games to fix them and do all of that,” Donaldson said. “Coaching is a weird thing. Sometimes you have to learn on the fly and with what we have. Hopefully, we have learned some stuff from this game. I think we have learned some stuff that we can take into the next game and try to get a result.

To do that, they will have to face a Haiti team that dispatched Mexico 3-0 in their second game. The United States became the first team to secure their World Cup qualifying place because of the Haiti win. Although Jamaica and Haiti are tied with three points in Group A, Haiti are in second place because of a better goal difference (0) than Jamaica (-4).

Donaldson says that there will be no room for error given Haiti’s fitness and aggressiveness and says that they have to play the perfect game to beat them.

“We have to play one of our best games and we have to play football to beat Haiti. They know what’s at stake. Everybody knows what’s at stake. It is a one-game tournament now and we just have to get after it,” Donaldson said.

Jamaica and Haiti will face each other on Monday at 9:00 p.m. for the final automatic qualifying spot.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com