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‘It is a big blow for us’ - Coach laments unavailability of top player and captain for Concacaf U-20 Championship Finals
February 21, 2022
NATIONAL UNDER-20 Reggae Girlz head coach, Xavier Gilbert, has almost given up on having the services of captain and leading player Jody Brown available for Jamaica's Concacaf Under-20 Women's Championship Finals, which is scheduled to take place in Mexico from February 25-March 5.
Gilbert said it will be extremely difficult to get the striker, who attends Florida State University, for the two weeks in Mexico, this after the player spent a week with the senior Reggae Girlz team that defeated Bermuda 4-0 on Thursday and Grenada 6-1 yesterday, in the senior women's Concacaf championship qualifiers.
Brown, who has 24 goals at the junior level (U-15, U-17 and U-20) and eight at the senior level, is the linchpin of the U-20 team.
At the last U-20 championship, she netted nine of the team's 21 goals and led them to the quarter-finals, where they suffered a surprise defeat to the Dominica Republic.
Gilbert said that it will prove very difficult to get a release for the Trelawny native for the U-20 tournament, noting that her experience and quality will be missed.
"It is a big blow for us. She is a key player. But we still have some very good players and we will just have to work with what we have," he said.
"She (Brown) is in university and I don't think they are going to give her the time off again because our tournament will be two weeks. She came and played two games for the senior team. That means she has been out of school for one week.
"By next week when she goes back she will have to come back and do another two weeks for that tournament. So it will be difficult. The two tournaments are too close together for her to get time off from school," he explained.
With eight players returning from the last U-20 cycle, Gilbert believes the Reggae Girlz still have enough quality and experience to put up a serious challenge. However, he is waiting until the final squad is announced before making his final assessment.
"Right now we do not know if all is okay until we assemble everybody and everyone is confirmed healthy and covid free. Then we will know if everything is alright," he added.
The top three teams from the Concacaf qualifiers will join host Costa Rica in the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women World Cup Final in August.
