Women’s football drives national programme

IN ASSESSING the performances of the national teams this calendar year, the guiding light has been the senior women’s national team, who, despite challenges in the campaign, made history again.

For the men, it has been a dismal year where everything that could have gone wrong did. As the Qatar dream faded, off-the-field issues threatened to derail their other commitments and a new man came to help steer the Reggae Boyz, finally, towards success. Add in the various youth team performances and it has been a mixed bag of performances as the page turns to 2023.

The Reggae Girlz’s path to the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand was not smooth. At the start of the first round, they had already changed coaches with Vin Blaine coming in for Hubert Busby Jr, who was let go because of sexual misconduct allegations made late in 2021.

All seemed fine when they topped their qualifying group in dominant fashion back in April. Weeks later, a letter from players voicing their dissatisfaction with the leadership of Blaine led to his resignation in May. Lorne Donaldson took over on an interim basis in June.

In a Concacaf Women’s Championship final round group that included Mexico, the reigning world champions, the United States, and Haiti, with little preparation time, the Girlz bet on themselves, regardless of the criticisms and the difficulties with a shortened preparation time. That July, they beat Mexico and Haiti, finishing second in the group, guaranteeing Jamaica back-to-back qualifications.

The feat marked the first time a team from the English-speaking Caribbean has qualified for back-to-back World Cups for either men or women.

Although they fell to Canada in the semifinals, they defeated Costa Rica to finish third and set up an Olympic qualifying showdown with reigning champions Canada next September.

Having started the year ranked 51, the Reggae Girlz finished the year ranked 44 as of the December 9 rankings and are the fifth-best team in the region.

While it seemed rocky, the Girlz ensured that the national colours will be represented again on the world stage this summer.

On the other side of the coin, the struggles the Reggae Boyz endured in World Cup campaign towards the end of 2021 did not change in 2022.

After the firing of Theodore Whitmore in December of 2021 and the appointment of Paul Hall as interim head coach, the campaign continued to nosedive, never recovering.

Jamaica lost four of their last six games, which included home defeats to Mexico and Costa Rica, dooming the Reggae Boyz to yet another World Cup qualifying failure. They were in danger of going the entire campaign without a home win but saved face in their final game against Honduras in March with a 2-0 victory.

Hall would lead the Boyz into their Concacaf Nations League campaign amid another spat with the Jamaica Football Federation following travel issues, which led to the resignation of Dalton Wint as general secretary.

Wins against Suriname both home and away and a draw against Mexico would secure a spot at next year’s Gold Cup tournament as well as set up a showdown against Mexico at the Azteca later to determine who progresses to the Nations League final. The Reggae Boyz, who were ranked 62nd in the world at the start of the year would finish 2022 two places below in 64th. Hall was replaced with Icelandic coach Heimir Hallgrimsson.

Both the Under-20 men’s and women’s team failed to qualify for the respective Under-20 World Cup tournaments under different circumstances.

In the summer, the young Reggae Boyz, led by Marcel Gayle, qualified from the group stage of the Under-20 Conacacaf Championship tournament and got past Haiti to set up a quarterfinal meeting with the Dominican Republic. Jamaica fell behind and weren’t able to get the crucial goal to extend their stay, losing 1-0 and seeing their Under-20 World Cup dreams end. It has been 20 years since the last time Jamaica played in the Under-20 World Cup.

The women, after qualifying third from the group stage at the Under-20 Women’s Championship, fell at the knockout stage to Panama.

At the Concacaf Under-17 Women’s Championship, the young Reggae Girlz finished second in a group that included favourites Canada, who they held to a 1-1 draw in group play. Jamaica dispatched Cuba in the round of 16 but faced the United States in the quarterfinals. Try as they might, they could not pull off the upset, losing 4-0 to the eventual champions. Natoya Atkinson would finish as the team’s top scorer with five goals while Shaniel Buckley, Maya Raghunandanan, Tiny Seaton and Dannique Wilson would finish with two each.

The focus for 2023 will turn to the Under-17 Conacacf Championships in February which has been delayed since 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jamaica have been drawn with Costa Rica, Cuba and Guadeloupe and will fight for a chance to qualify for the Under-17 World Cup in Peru.

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com