Jamaica women's national football team

Jamaica women's national football team, nicknamed the "Reggae Girlz", is one of the top women's national football teams in the Caribbean region along with Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti. In 2008, the team was disbanded after it failed to get out of the group stage of Olympic Qualifying, which notably featured the United States and Mexico. The program was restarted in 2014 after a nearly six-year hiatus, finishing second at the 2014 Women's Caribbean Cup after losing 1–0 against Trinidad and Tobago in the final. The team is backed by ambassador Cedella Marley, the daughter of Bob Marley; she helps raise awareness for the team, encourages development, and provides for it financially.[3] Jamaica qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup for the first time in 2019, but the team was eliminated after losing all its matches in the group stage.

This article is about the women's team. For the men's team, see Jamaica national football team.

Jamaica
Nickname(s)Reggae Girlz
AssociationJamaica Football Federation
Head coachHue Menzies[1]
Most capsSashana Campbell (31)
Top scorerKhadija Shaw (42)
FIFA codeJAM
First colours
Second colours
FIFA ranking
Current 50 (18 December 2020)[2]
Highest50 (March 2020)
Lowest128 (November 2010)
First international
 Haiti 1–0 Jamaica 
(Port-au-Prince, Haiti; 17 April 1991)
Biggest win
 Jamaica 14–0 Saint Lucia 
(San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic; 20 June 2014)
Biggest defeat
 Canada 11–1 Jamaica 
(Brazil; 18 July 2007)
 United States 10–0 Jamaica 
(Canada; 19 August 1994)
World Cup
Appearances1 (first in 2019)
Best resultGroup stage (2019)
CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup
Appearances6 (first in 2002)
Best result3rd place (2018)

History

Founding

Women's football in Jamaica started with the founding of the Jamaican Women's Football association (founded by Andrea Lewis its first president) in 1987.[4]

1990s

On 17 April 1991 the team competed in its first international match against Haiti, which they lost 1–0.[5] In August 1994, the Reggae Girlz were defeated 10–0 by the United States.[5]

2000s

In 2002, the Reggae Girlz qualified for the 2002 CONCACAF Women's Gold Cup (the qualifying tournament for the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup, but lost all of their preliminary round games. In 2006, the team qualified for the Women’s Gold Cup again and finished in fourth place.[5]

2010s

In 2010, due to lack of funding, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) cut the senior women’s program as well as the women’s Olympic program. Subsequently, the team was unable to participate in the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.[6] In 2011, due to over three years of inactivity, Jamaica was not ranked in the FIFA Women's World Rankings.[7]

In April 2014, Cedella Marley was named the team’s official ambassador and helped the team with their fundraising efforts.[8] On 24 June 2014, the team launched the fundraising campaign "Strike Hard for the Reggae Girlz!"[9] to raise $50,000 to pay for practices, travel expenses, housing, nutrition, and equipment in preparation for the 2014 CONCACAF Women's Championship where they hoped to secure a spot at the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup.[10]

In July 2014, it was announced that Jamaica was looking for players with Jamaican heritage in countries as far as the United Kingdom in order to improve their squad for the 2014 Women Caribbean Cup in Trinidad and Tobago.[11] The team again went unranked by FIFA in June 2017.[12]

In May 2018, Jamaica began the first round of Caribbean Zone qualifying, this was the first time the team had assembled in two years.[13] Jamaica won their group and advanced to the final round of Caribbean Zone qualifying. They hosted the final round tournament and won all four games securing their spot at the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship.[14] The same year, Jamaica competed in the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games. In the group stage, they had a record of one win and two losses, but did not advance to the knockout round.[14] At the 2018 CONCACAF Women's Championship, Jamaica was drawn into Group B alongside Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. In their first match against Canada, they played well but lost 2–0. Jamaica secured an upset 1–0 victory over Costa Rica in their second match, thanks in part to the great play of goalkeeper Sydney Schneider.[15] In their final group match against Cuba, Jamaica won 9–0. As a result of Costa Rica losing their final group match, Jamaica finished second in their group and advanced to the semi-finals where they would face the number one ranked United States.[16] The US defeated Jamaica 6–0, in the semi-final. Jamaica won the third place match against Panama on penalty kicks, securing a spot at the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. Jamaica is the first Caribbean nation to ever qualify for a Women's World Cup and became the first Caribbean country to have both men's and women's teams to participate in men's and women's World Cup.[17] Interestingly, its male counterparts also qualified to the only FIFA World Cup also in France.

Jamaica placed in Group C with Italy, Australia and Brazil, and was considered as a dark horse, being rated the lowest in the group. Eventually, they finished last in the group after losing all matches but scored a lone goal by Havana Solaun.

2020s

Jamaica participant in the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic qualifying.

Jamaica Women's Football Association
Jamaica Women's Football Association
Name Nat Position Year
Jean Nelson Jamaica Women's Football Association President 1991
Elaine Walker-Brown Jamaica Women's Football Association President 1994

Competitive record

FIFA Women's World Cup
Finals record
Year Result GP W D* L GF GA GD
1991Did Not Qualify
1995
1999Did Not Enter
2003Did Not Qualify
2007
2011Did Not Enter
2015Did Not Qualify
2019Group stage3003112-11
2023 TBD-not yet qualified
Total1/83003112-11
*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
Finals history
YearRoundDateOpponentResultStadium
2019 Group stage9 June BrazilL 0–3Stade des Alpes, Grenoble
14 June ItalyL 0–5Stade Auguste-Delaune, Reims
18 June AustraliaL 1–4Stade des Alpes, Grenoble

CONCACAF Women's Championship & Gold Cup
Finals record
Year Result GP W D* L GF GA GD
1991Group Stage3003112−11
1993Did Not Enter-------
1994Fifth Place3003222−20
1998Did Not Enter-------
2000Did Not Enter-------
2002Group Stage3003113−12
2006Fourth Place310227−5
2010Did Not Enter-------
2014Group Stage310285+3
2018Third Place52121210+2
Total6/102041152669−43
*Draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

Coaching staff

Current coaching staff
Name Nat Position
Hubert Busby Jnr. Head coach
Andrew Price[18] Assistant coach
David Gough Assistant coach
Will Hitzelberger Physical Trainer
Jason Henry Physical Trainer
Dr Lori-Ann Miller Team Doctor
Saundria Codling Physiotherapist
Omar Folkes Equipment Manager
Sheridan Samuels[19] Head of delegation

Manager history
Name Nat Position Year
Grace Butterfield Jamaica National Senior Women's Team Manager 1991
Jean Nelson Jamaica National Women's Teams Manager[20][21] 1994
Jacqueline Cummings Jamaica National Women's Team Asst Manager 1994
Elaine Walker-Brown Jamaica National Senior Women's Team Manager 2014
Jean Nelson Jamaica National Women's Teams Manager 2009–Present

Players

Up-to-date caps, goals, and statistics are not publicly available; therefore, caps and goals listed may be incorrect.

Current squad
No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 1GK Sydney Schneider (1999-08-31) 31 August 1999 18 0 Washington Spirit (draft pick)
3 1GK Alyssa Whitehead (1989-09-12) 12 September 1989 0 0 Unattached
13 1GK Chris-Ann Chambers (1995-10-24) 24 October 1995 4 0 UWI
2 2DF Chantelle Swaby (1998-08-06) 6 August 1998 19 0 Sky Blue
4 2DF Madiya Harriott (1999-02-16) 16 February 1999 3 0 Unattached
5 2DF Konya Plummer (C) (1997-08-02) 2 August 1997 20 1 Orlando Pride
12 2DF Sashana Campbell (1991-03-02) 2 March 1991 34 3 Unattached
14 2DF Deneisha Blackwood (1997-03-07) 7 March 1997 26 7 Orlando Pride
16 2DF Dominique Bond-Flasza (1996-09-11) 11 September 1996 24 4 Medyk Konin
17 2DF Allyson Swaby (1996-10-03) 3 October 1996 20 0 Roma
6 3MF Havana Solaun (1993-02-23) 23 February 1993 9 2 North Carolina Courage
7 3MF Chinyelu Asher (1993-05-20) 20 May 1993 27 6 Unattached
10 3MF Olufolasade Adamolekun (2001-02-21) 21 February 2001 9 0 USC Trojans
8 4FW Gabrielle Farrell (1997-12-04) 4 December 1997 1 0 Spartak Subotica
9 4FW Kayla McCoy (1996-09-03) 3 September 1996 6 2 Houston Dash
11 4FW Khadija Shaw (1997-01-31) 31 January 1997 30 42 Bordeaux
15 4FW Tiffany Cameron (1991-10-16) 16 October 1991 11 4 Ferencváros
18 4FW Trudi Carter (1994-11-18) 18 November 1994 19 10 Unattached
19 4FW Tiernny Wiltshire (1998-05-08) 8 May 1998 5 0 Maccabi Emek Hefer
20 4FW Cheyna Matthews (1993-11-10) 10 November 1993 10 8 Racing Louisville FC

Recent call-ups
  • The following players have been called up in the past 12 months.

This list may be incomplete.

Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club Latest call-up

Notes:

  • INJ: Withdrew due to injury

Records
As of 8 April 2018
  • Players in bold text are still active with Jamaica.

Results and fixtures
  • The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Lose   Fixtures

References
  1. "Hue Menzies HC of Jamaica, "qualifying to the World Cup will be historic for these players"". www.concacaf.com. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  2. "The FIFA/Coca-Cola Women's World Ranking". FIFA. 18 December 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  3. "Equalizer Soccer – Mother, sister, ambassador: Bob Marley's daughter helps Jamaica with World Cup qualifying journey". Womens.soccerly.com. 13 October 2014. Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 14 October 2015.
  4. http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130101/sports/sports2.html
  5. Jamaica Information Service. "Football – Women's League". Jamaica Information Service. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  6. Williams, Sean A. (16 March 2010). "FIFA grants CONCACAF another Women's World Cup spot". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  7. Davis, Kayon (13 August 2011). "The state of women's football in Jamaica". Jamaica Observer. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  8. Kenner, Rob (10 April 2014). "Interview: Cedella Marley Wants to Help Send a Jamaican Team to the Women's World Cup in 2015". Complex. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  9. Guardian staff (28 April 2014). "Bob Marley's daughter joins Reggae Girlz' World Cup campaign". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  10. Grow, Kory (2 July 2014). "Bob Marley's Daughter Aids Jamaica Soccer Team's World Cup Bid". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  11. Trinidad Express staff (6 July 2014). "Jamaica extends net to recruit women footballers". Trinidad Express Newspapers. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  12. "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking: Jamaica". FIFA. Retrieved 23 June 2017.
  13. "Jamaica's Reggae Girlz ready for the Concacaf Caribbean Women's Qualifier 2018". 8 May 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  14. "JAMAICA". Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  15. "Heroic Schneider takes Player-of-the-Match award in stride". 10 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  16. "JFF hopes Reggae Girlz 9–0 win will 'ignite' interest in women's football among Jamaicans". 12 October 2018. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  17. "Jamaica qualify for Women's World Cup with help from Bob Marley's daughter". 18 October 2018. Retrieved 11 November 2018 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  18. Limited, Jamaica Observer. "Coaches rally Girlz ahead of third-place play-off". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  19. Limited, Jamaica Observer. "Girlz staff revel in historic feat". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 11 November 2018.
  20. "Jamaica Observer Football". www.jamaicaobserver.com. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  21. Limited, Jamaica Observer. "Khadija Shaw is a treasure, says Girlz Manager Nelson". Jamaica Observer. Retrieved 3 December 2018.
  22. https://twitter.com/Reggae_Girlz_F/status/1177065037615239169
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