Reggae Girlz breeze into CONCACAF Final Round after spanking Dom Rep 5-1

Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz Captain Khadija “Bunny” Shaw struck a brace to help her team spank the Dominican Republic 5-1 in their decisive CONCACAF Women’s Championship Group C qualifier at Sabina Park in Kingston on Tuesday evening.

Shaw, the Manchester City Football Club striker, hit the target in the 79^th and 90^th+3 minutes to seal Jamaica’s place in the Final Round of the FIFA CONCACAF Women’s Championship slated for Mexico in July.

It was Jody Brown who gave Jamaica the lead in 16 minutes, only for Kat Gonzalez to pull the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic level after 24 minutes.

Trudi Carter put the hosts back in front on 40 minutes to take her team to halftime in control.

After the break Tiffany Cameron made it 3-1 on the hour mark, before skipper Shaw stepped up to notch her 50^th and 51^st goals for Jamaica, as she extends her tally as the leading all-time scorer for Jamaica in either men’s or women’s competition at the senior level.

The Vin Blaine-coached Reggae Girlz thus settled all arguments to top Group C with maximum 12 points, while relegating the Dominican Republic to second place on nine points. Bermuda were third on six points after blanking Grenada 6-0 in Tuesday’s other Group C encounter.

The Cayman Islands were fourth on three points with Grenada pointless after four games.

Jamaica had defeated Bermuda 4-0, Grenada 6-1 and the Cayman Islands 9-0.

As a result of Tuesday’s result, the Girlz secured qualification to the final phase, along with the winners of the other five groups, A, B, D, E and F – Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, respectively.

They will join the US and Canada, the two seeded teams from the region who received byes to the final phase.

Mexico won Group A with maximum 12 points and a goal difference of 34. Costa Rica did likewise in Group B with a goal difference of 22. Panama were also imperious in Group D where they won all four games and boasted a goal difference of 24, whole Haiti massacred the opposition in Group E where they came away with a healthy goal difference of 44.

Trinidad and Tobago topped Group E with 10 points after three wins and a draw by scoring 19 goals and conceding three.

The top four teams from the final eight will qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals in Australia and New Zealand in 2023.

Points Standings Group C

Teams                  P       W      D       L        Gf      Ga     Gd     Pts

Jamaica               4       4       0       0       24     2       22     12

Dom Republic     4       3       0       0       15     5       10     9

Bermuda             4       2       0       2       12     5       7       6

Cayman Island    4       1       0       3       2       19     -17    3

Grenada              4       0       0       4       1       23     -22    0