JAMAICA WOMEN’S PREMIER LEAGUE - Frazsiers Whip put one foot in final
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Three-time defending champions Frazsiers Whip have one foot in the final of the Jamaica Women’s Premier League (JWPL) after they thumped Real Mona 5-0 in the first leg of the semi-finals at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence over the weekend.
Frazsiers Whip got their goals courtesy of a Shanel Smith brace (16th minute, 37th) and strikes from Christina Salmon (43rd), Nevillegail Able (66th), and Ricquanna Richards (86th).
Courtney Dowdie, head coach of Frazsiers Whip, praised his players for their performance, saying they had met the expectations of defending champions.
At the beginning of the season, Dowdie said he was confident of a fourth-straight hold on the title and believed they are in the right form to do so.
“The confidence has always been there,” Dowdie said after the first-leg win. “We started the season on a high, and the aim is to finish on a high.”
“We started the season as defending champions, and that's the plan going through the entire competition. Yes, we'll have tough teams to play, but that's what Frazsiers are here for; to play the tough teams,” he continued.
“Today was a good game. They had us in patches, but I think we prevailed in the end.”
Real Mona’s head coach Neo Oxford decided not to focus on the game’s result but to use the defeat as a lesson.
Real Mona fielded a team comprised primarily of high school players, and Oxford said they deserved the praise for reaching the semi-finals.
“It was a good game of football and many lessons were learnt today,” Oxford said after the match.
Oxford explained that the difference between the two teams was the experience of the individual players.
While he has not admitted defeat just yet, Oxford said their plan for the second leg is to give a strong showing and represent themselves well.
“I said to the girls at half-time that what this Frazsiers Whip team has is something that I can't coach, and that’s experience,” he explained.
“That's the maturity of the football game. That's knowing where you need to be, when you need to be there, and the communication, and that's why we're in the league,” Oxford continued.
“We're in the league to learn. We're in the league to teach these 13- and 14-year-olds that football is a little bit more advanced, and Frazsiers Whip raised the level for us today.”
CLOSE CONTEST
While the first semi-final seems an already-concluded affair, the second semi-final is expected to be a close contest, with Arnett Gardens just edging Los Perfectos 3-2 in the first leg of their contest.
Shikira Douglas (2nd, 42nd), along with a strike from captain Tuanashae Hamilton (77th), handed the ‘Junglists’ the slight advantage.
Veteran striker Venicia Reid (28th, 88th) handed Los Perfectos a lifeline, keeping them in the tie heading into the second leg.