Donaldson banking on Shaw to ignite Girlz attack
Published:Sunday | July 23, 2023 | 12:12 AMDaniel Wheeler - Staff Reporter
TO NO one’s surprise national senior women’s head coach Lorne Donaldson has emphasised how instrumental captain Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw will be in the Reggae Girlz’s chances of making it out of Group F at the Women’s World Cup.
But Donaldson is banking on Shaw’s strong second season at Manchester City this year to be the catalyst from which she becomes a force in her second World Cup appearance.
Shaw is coming off a season where she finished as the Women’s Super League second-highest goalscorer with 22 goals and 31 goals in all competitions. Her performances led to a club’s Player of the Season award, a nomination for fans PFA Player of the Season and to becoming the first Caribbean player to win the Concacaf Women’s Player of the Year award.
“It is also valuable when you have a player who knows how to find the back of the net. Goals win games and her leadership in this World Cup is going to be telling. And obviously, she is a top-notch player and we expect her to perform,” Donaldson said.
“Hopefully, she can carry that form from the English league into these games and we can see some glory.”
The Reggae Girlz got their campaign off and running against fifth-ranked France today in Sydney, a team that she is familiar with given her time in the French League two years ago where she became the league’s top scorer, the first woman, not from Lyon or PSG, to win the golden boot.
Having cemented herself as one of the best strikers in the world last season, her teammate Atlanta Primus is also confident of Shaw’s ability to translate that form to spearhead a Reggae Girlz attack that is determined to fight for a place in the next round.
“Bunny has been a top striker for many years. I think she will enter the competition with great confidence. For us as a team, it’s great to have someone so good and so confident going into the tournament,” Primus said.
Shaw is hoping that she will get off the mark in Australia after not scoring in the Reggae Girlz’s first appearance in 2019.