No joy for Reggae Girlz

In what was a rematch of their group stage fixture during the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, France got the better of the Reggae Girlz yesterday as they emerged 3-0 winners in their international friendly at the Stade Auguste-Bonal.

The last time the two teams met, the Girlz held France to a scoreless draw to open their World Cup campaign in a defensive showing.

France left little to chance this time around, as they dominated the game’s proceedings from the first whistle, holding the lion’s share of the statistics in possession and attempts at goal.

Goals from Clara Mateo, Wendie Renard and Sandy Baltimore sealed the win for the hosts who claimed their first win since their quarter-finals loss to Brazil at the Paris Olympics in August.

Reggae Girlz head coach Hubert Busby said a lot has changed for both teams since their last meeting at the World Cup, as both national programmes have different objectives set before them.

“Obviously a top 10 opposition,” Busby said in his post-match interview. “They have come off, probably for them, a disappointing Olympics, so they’re in a new cycle as well. So they’re playing some more games and they’re embedding some new players. So it’s a new cycle for everything.

“As I’ve always said, you can’t speak about what happened a year ago because things change and, every day, things change in football. So, never mind a year from now. In a year from now, we’ll be in a different stage. So it’s really about being in the now with the idea of how we’re building towards the future,” Busby said.

France opened the scoring when an uncharacteristic mistake from Chantelle Swaby opened the door for Mateo to shoot at goal uncontested in the 22nd minute.

39TH-MINUTE GOAL

The hosts doubled their lead in the 39th minute when the tall Wendie Renard headed home from close range off a delivery from a corner.

Chelsea’s summer-signing Baltimore would seal the win minutes after the restart. She was left unmarked at the back post and made no mistake with her effort across the face of the goal.

Reggae Girl Vyan Sampson said, despite the loss, the objective for the team was to get minutes on the field against one of the best teams in women’s football.

She said, with new additions to the team, the focus was on building cohesion with the new players rather than getting a result.

“Playing France in the World Cup was a different type of mentality and there were different things on the line. So the stakes here are very different. We had put everything into that game to get a result but this is obviously a different type of match,” she explained.

“Player management is obviously important as well and, with us having new players coming into the group, we needed to look at them and give them a taste of international football. Thanks to a few injuries and a few different changes, that obviously changed the result and outcome of the game, but that’s football, we don’t really look into that too hard.”

The next assignments for the Reggae Girlz will be a pair of international friendlies against South Africa, set for November 29 and December 2 at home.