‘We’re happy with that’

IT TOOK Jody Brown just five minutes into a friendly against Peru at the Estadio Alberto Gallardo in that country yesterday to break a goal drought dating all the way back to February of 2023.

Brown’s fifth-minute strike, her 16th in the national colours, preceded a plethora of chances the Reggae Girlz created in a game that surprisingly only ended 2-0 to the visitors.

Kayla McKenna accounted for the Reggae Girlz second goal, for which they had to wait until the 52nd minute.

Reggae Girlz head coach Hubert Busby Jr is not too worried about the team’s profligacy, though, saying that he has seen some of the improvements he has been speaking about over the course of the last few weeks.

“We will work on the finishing,” he told reporters after the game.

“We are creating the chances,” he said, after speaking about the nature of the game and achieving the objectives he took aim at.

“It was a little bit difficult from our perspective. We knew Peru was going to give us a good game. I think the most important thing for us is not only were we able to get the result in the end, we were able to adjust and to manage the game a lot better,” he said.

According to Busby, although the Jamaicans created many chances to increase their lead in the first half, there needed to be an adjustment in terms of managing the game after going into that lead.

“I think we weren’t able to do that in the first half, and I think the second half was a lot better. At the end of the day, it is about getting a result when you come into environments like this. It is what we are preparing for when it comes to potential World Cup qualification on the horizon,” he said.

Busby was also pleased with the number of young players he was able to get onto the park yesterday.

“What was really promising was that we were able to get a lot of subs, get a lot of young players and in some cases their debut. For them to come on and really get the experience of what international football is in these environments. From that perspective, the objectives were met, and we’re happy with that.”

McKenna was scoring her second goal in is as many games for the Reggae Girlz, having netted in a 3-2 win they had over South Africa in their last friendly.

The midfielder, who now has five international goals, had a remarkable outing, with Brown’s effort also coming on account of her assist.

The Reggae Girlz will again face Peru on Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.