Having settled their pay dispute with management, Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz appear to have turned their fury into skilled football, demolishing all in their way in the eliminator matches for the Olympic Qualifying Championship next year.
Jamaica, Haiti and St. Kitts and Nevis emerged as the top teams out of 16 in the Caribbean Zone that have been contesting, since Sept. 30 to Oct. 08, for three spots in the Championship where they will take on sides from Central and North America for the regional title.
Only the Championship winner and runner-up will go on to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 16 Caribbean zone teams were split into three groups for matches played in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Jamaica’s path of devastation was run through Group B.
The Girlz tore their way through the group to make it to the Championship by handing Cuba a 12 – 1 drubbing; Barbados a 7 – 0 whipping; St Lucia a 11 – 0 cut tail; and US Virgin Islands 7 – 0 slamming.
In the Cuba encounter, the first game for the both teams, Cheyna Matthews scored four times for Jamaica and Tiffany Cameron two.
St. Kitts and Nevis’ girls, who also made into next year’s Championship, went by a modest performance compared to the Girlz’ rampage. In Group A, St. Kitts drew 0-0 with Dominica; drubbed Aruba 6 – 1; slammed Trinidad and Tobago 4 -1; and Antigua 10 – 1.
Haiti was also dominant in Group C — the smallest set owing to late withdrawals of Dominica and Grenada — and emerged at the top to become the third Caribbean team qualifying for the Championship by swamping Suriname 10 -0; and Puerto Rico 2 – 1
