‘Bunny’ Shaw eyes more history

WESTERN BUREAU:

Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, who led Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz to their historic qualification for the round of 16 in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which is ongoing in Australia and New Zealand, is already eyeing more history in the upcoming Olympic qualifying showdown against Canada.

The Reggae Girlz who drew with ‘big guns’ France and Brazil, and defeated Panama 1-0 to advance from their group as one of the tournament’s ‘surprise packages’ will meet Canada on September 22 in the first game of a two-way showdown for a place at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

Shaw, who was the Jamaican player with the highest profile at the World Cup returned to the island yesterday via Sangster International Airport, in Montego Bay, and in between declaring that she felt a tremendous feeling of satisfaction about their performance at the tournament, said her focus has now switched to the match-up with Canada.

“Going to the World Cup and having the type of performance that we have had, we can look at ourselves and say we can just match up equally with the other teams,” said Shaw, citing the experience gained from playing in two World Cup tournaments and having players playing in top leagues around the world.

“Canada are just another test similar to what we had in the World Cup, and for us, we want to create more history … we are going to talk about our time in Australia and of course, the game against Colombia and try to correct some of the mistakes that we had,” said Shaw.

TREMENDOUS FEELING

In looking back at what was her second experience at the World Cup, Shaw, who went to the tournament on the back of an impressive season with Manchester City in the English Women’s Premier League, said she gave it her best shot which accounted for her tremendous feeling.

“I think it is not just about me; sometimes you tend to think you want to do it yourself, but I think you have to put yourself in other players’ positions, and that is what I think I have done, and I tried to do it to the best of my ability,” said Shaw.

Regarding the support the team attracted in Australia and New Zealand, Shaw said she was pleasantly surprised, especially in the game against Brazil.

“I think it is funny, because I remember we were lining up against Brazil, Becky (Rebecca Spencer) was beside me, and even though there were a lot of persons there, I was looking at Becky and I was like, we actually have people in the stands, so they travelled all that distance to support us, while we also had support in Australia as well.”

Like Shaw, assistant coach Xavier Gilbert, who was also a part of the delegation that returned to the island yesterday, was pleased with how the team acquitted itself, saying he expects new doors of opportunity to open for many of the players.

“It was a very good tournament for us; we enjoyed ourselves, and the girls did extremely well, and did Jamaica proud … of course, a lot of them would have been looking for new contracts, and so on, and I’m sure they did themselves proud,” said Gilbert.

Regarding the contribution of the support staff, Gilbert felt they met the moment well and provided the support the girls needed to perform at their best.

“I think they were good, the medical team did a wonderful job, plus equipment and management. There are a lot of persons behind the scenes who do a lot of work that people don’t see, and sometimes they can go unnoticed because they are the ones who really pull everything together,” said Gilbert.