Donaldson staying course on team construction
Published:Tuesday | February 21, 2023 | 12:27 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
National senior women’s head coach Lorne Donaldson is not taking his eye off the long-term goal of constructing a team good enough to challenge at the FIFA Women’s World Cup despite difficult results in their Cup of Nations tournament run.
The Reggae Girlz will play their final game against hosts Australia tomorrow at 3:10 a.m. Jamaica time at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle, Australia, wrapping up the three-game tournament, which has been used as part of their preparation for the World Cup.
Jamaica lost their second game against the Czech Republic 3-2, with Jody Brown and Kameron Simmonds scoring Jamaica’s first goals of the tournament. Back-to-back defeats have not deterred Donaldson, expressing the importance of the team getting experience against high-level competition and seeing which players can equip themselves the best as he begins the process of narrowing down the team.
“We are building. We are still looking at players, and some of the players here are players that we are looking at and we put them in some tough situations. We want to win games, but we still have to look at the big picture to see where we want to go,” Donaldson said. “We are still trying to build a squad. We have a couple of good players that didn’t play (against the Czech Republic) because we want to look at some other players. We have to continue the same way, and we have to start thinking that we are building towards something special.”
Jamaica lost to Spain 3-0 in their tournament opener, a game that Donaldson admitted they were not good enough and vowed improvement. Although there were lapses in concentration which led to Jamaica conceding the winning goal late in the second half against the Czech Republic, national midfielder Drew Spence says overall they played better in that game.
“In certain situations, we needed to be smarter, and I think at some periods of the game it was better. The mistakes cost us, but this is what this tournament is all about. It is about us learning and playing these games,” Spence said.
Jamaica’s encounter against Australia will be the first time the teams will be meeting since their Women’s World Cup group game in Grenoble, France, in June 2019, where the Matildas won 4-1 and Havana Soluan scored the country’s first-ever goal in tournament history. Donaldson believes that no matter the result, the experience will be invaluable to help them adjust to the environment when they return for the real thing this July.
“We came here because it is three quality teams (they are up against,) and we came here to mimic the situation in Australia. All of our players will know what the fatigue is all about and time change, and all of that stuff. So it’s been great so far, and we are looking forward to the last game against the Matildas,” Donaldson said.