Busby expects a highly motivated Brazil
Published:Thursday | May 23, 2024 | 12:10 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
REGGAE GIRLZ head coach Hubert Busby Jr believes that for more reasons than one, Brazil will be extremely motivated when they play the South America country in two international friendlies in Brazil on June 1 and 4.
Speaking at a press conference at the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) yesterday, Busby said the fact that this might be women’s football great, Martha’s last two home matches, coupled with the fact that Jamaica eliminated Brazil from the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, this won’t be a stroll in the park. In addition, Busby said, players in the Brazil side were battling for places in the Olympic team as well as attempting to transition into being regular senior players.
“Their (Brazil) motivation I do not know. But when we look at all the dynamics around this match, you have to take into consideration that Martha, who I had the pleasure of coaching in 2009, and she is such a great role model to all players around the world because of what she came through and what she means to the game, this is probably her last two games on home soil.
“And with the World Cup coming into their backyard, and the idea that we knocked them out of the World Cup, there is no other greater motivating factor than that,” he said.
The result, Busby explained, is that Jamaica need to be extremely organised over the two matches.
“There are players trying to make the final roster for the Olympic team. So we have all that to consider when we go into this game.
“They have the best player, arguably of this generation (Martha), moving on. So we have to look at where they are and what they could be.
“I still haven’t seen their squad, but the last four, five games they’ve had a mixture of old and young players. So we are not sure what squad they will bring up. But I think they will bring an experienced squad with an eye on the next cycle.
“We can’t control that, but we can control what we can do. So we are making sure that we are prepared and organised and that we are well structured.
“But this group of players has been around big matches for a long time, and so I think they will be able to handle it.”
Coaches are judged on results, and Bubsy said that the aim of going to Brazil is to come away with positive results and performances.
“At the senior national team level, it is all about results, so we want to have positive results. These games are going to give us a good insight, also psychologically in terms of where we are and where we want to go.
“I have no doubt that these players have shown over and over on the biggest stage in the world that they are up for a challenge. So we are looking forward to having some good results, but more importantly, we are looking to have some really good performances.”