Goal-shy Girlz beaten 2-1 by Paraguay
Published:Monday | November 14, 2022 | 12:09 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
Reggae Girlz coach Lorne Donaldson is happy the team is creating chances and remains confident that the goals will come after Jamaica went down 2-1 to Paraguay in the second and final friendly international at the National Stadium last night. Jamaica won the first match 1-0 in Montego Bay last Thursday.
Donaldson, however, believes other players need to make the most of their opportunities and take some of the goal scoring duties off captain and leading player Khadija Shaw.
“The captain is a goalscorer,” Donaldson said when asked if there was too much burden on Shaw to score for the team. “But it doesn’t matter who it is, you are going to miss chances. I am happy we are creating chances and sooner or later they will go in. I am disappointed we didn’t score more. You will be disappointed that you are creating chances and they are not going into the back of the net. But that is football. You can dominate a team but the bottom line is the team which is better in the box wins. You have to be better in the box and we didn’t get that done today. We went through the first half and was not our best,” he said.
Although displeased with the the result, Donaldson contends that it is still a work in progress.
“I am not disappointed. If you want to win you have to be realistic at times. So I am not disappointed at all. We had the effort and they push on. But I am not disappointed in these ladies. We have nine months (to prepare for World Cup) and we didn’t bring any of the college players here. So we have to look at these players in this window, we want to narrow it down to about 30 players going into the next game. This gives us a good idea of what we will have. We have seen enough over the two games. We are not going to continue with the tryout process, so by the time we get to the next camp it should be evident that this is the top 30 players we have.
Celsa Sandoval fired Paraguay in front in the 18th minute after a mix-up in the Jamaica defence. They increased their lead in the 35th minute through Ramona Martinez.
Khadija Shaw pulled a goal back in the second half. A defender handled the ball inside the area and Shaw converted the penalty
Drew Spence, Shaw, Paige Bailey-Gayle, Chantelle Swaby, Kayla McKoy, Spence and Siohban Wilson all squandered a host of chances in the first half while Spence, Cheyna Matthews and Shaw all had great chances in the second half.
“I wouldn’t say it was frustrating but as coach said the energy wasn’t there and we needed as a group to find ways to pick it up in dull moments and we struggled a lot today in those moments. I think that is one of the areas we need to improve in. We need to have that fighting spirit. That was the most important thing I took from the game,” said captain Shaw.
Paraguay coach Marcello Frigerio said: “I always trust my team. Every match we are growing and getting better we started this match and already knew we were going to win.”