Striker Marlee Fray netted a brilliant second-half hat-trick to lead Jamaica’s Under-20 Reggae Girlz to a come-from-behind 4-4 draw against Guatemala in their opening match in Group C of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers in the Dominican Republic yesterday.
Fray netted her goals in the 54th, 68th and 76th minutes for the Xavier Gilbert-coached team, who trailed 3-0 at half-time. Jody Brown was the other goalscorer for the Jamaicans in the 50th minute.
Dalton Wint, general secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation, said he was very pleased with the team’s efforts because they played well.
“It is not a bad performance from the girls, owing to the fact that we showed some resilience, because we were down 3-0 and we came back,” said Wint.
“It is not the result we would have wanted, but from a position of three goals down and to draw the game 4-4 is not bad from us,” he said. “We just have to ensure that we take care of the other opponents that we will face going forward, so that we will be able to advance from this round.”
The Girlz will oppose El Salvador in their second match in the tournament tomorrow, before closing out their campaign against Canada on Wednesday.
The top two teams at the end of the tournament will qualify for the Under-20 World Cup, which will be held later this year.