Reggae Girlz come from behind to sweep South Africa tie

JAMAICA’S REGGAE Girlz came from behind at the Montego Bay Sports Complex to claim a clean sweep of their two-leg tie against South Africa on Monday night.

Goals from Vyan Sampson in the 58th, Drew Spence in the 63rd, and Kayla McKenna in the 76th rendered Linda Mothalo’s 19th and Amogeland Motau’s time-added efforts redundant.

According to Reggae Girlz coach, Hubert Busby, the relative closeness of the second game could be put down to tired legs. The Reggae Girlz had won the tie's first leg 3-0 on Friday.

“It's going to be straining. You could see that a little bit in the first half, us trying to find our legs a bit, and credit to the medical staff and high-performance staff, you know, in terms of getting the players ready. But yeah, in these games, is why we play them. We're going to put, you know, in stressful situations, and I wouldn't like it to have been as stressful in the 90th minute, but, but that's football, you know. Sometimes you've got to kind of have those adversities for you to kind of spark you into life,” Busby said.

The Reggae Girlz were left chasing in a first half where South Africa looked comfortable and predictably went behind in the 19th minute.

The goal woke up the Reggae Girlz and while talisman Khadija Shaw, who had a brace on Friday, did not get on the scoresheet, her quality proved problematic for the South Africans.

Still, the Reggae Girlz had to wait until the second half to start their comeback, Busby explaining that fresh legs were needed for that eventuality.

“We made a couple of adjustments and brought on some fresh legs, which was an impetus for them to come on and do some different things in midfield. That was kind of always the plan — to kind of integrate some players — and for some of the players to push through that threshold as well,” said Busby.

Shaw’s industry brought about the first goal after she challenged the South African goalkeeper before the spill fell to Samson who made no mistake.

If Shaw’s intervention had a hint of fortuitousness on the first goal, that was not the case for the second after her delivery was perfectly met by Spence to put the Reggae Girls ahead.

With Shaw off the field, receiving some well-earned rest, a South African defender made the ill-advised decision to attempt to control a firmly struck through-ball and only managed to lay the ball on a platter for McKenna to burst through on goal and tap home from close range.

At 3-1, the game was well and truly over until Jamaica, who were guilty of losing the ball too easily in the dying moments, gifted Motau with possession.

Driving forward she found no defender close and struck from distance.

While there was some pace on the effort, it went straight to young custodian, Liya Brooks, who should have had no trouble holding on.

However, she fumbled the save and then slipped in her bid to recover, watching helplessly as the ball crept over the line.

At 3-2 things could have become interesting but there was just too little time left in the game for South Africa to take advantage of any momentum.

“We may have lost, but we lost with pride. If the decisions don’t go your way, there is nothing you can do. We could have won the game. I think for most of the game we were in control. Even when we conceded, we were in control. I think the people back home were up; this is for them,” said South Africa head coach, Dr Desiree Ellis.

If there was one area Ellis believed the South Africans could have improved and it was their performance in the final third.

Something she said would have gone better had she had a full squad.

“Our movement up front, especially in the first half could have been better. We came here without a striker, because of having a couple of withdrawals just before we left, so we couldn’t place anyone there. I think we also gave some debuts to players and that is a plus. We knew the physicality; we knew the speed of the Jamaicans, but tonight we showed that we have very good players coming through,” she said.

The coach also felt the distance South Africa had to travel also played a role in the pair of losses.

“I think the seven-hour difference took its toll on us, especially in the second half. But, I think being here a little bit longer, I think that really helped us today and showed the true worth of Banyana Banyana.”