Busby pleased with overall effort after Reggae Girlz beat Peru in opening friendly

DESPITE impatience that led to a somewhat chaotic game, Jamaica’s senior Reggae Girlz delivered a dominant performance to defeat Peru 2-0 in their first of two international friendly matches on Sunday.

The victory was much to the delight of Head Coach Hubert Busby.

The Reggae Girlz secured their win thanks to goals from Jody Brown in the fifth minute and Kayla McKenna in the 52nd minute, at Estadio Miguel Grau in Lima, Peru.

The team’s victory marked a significant milestone, and Busby praised his players for their hard work and dedication. Busby was particularly pleased with the team’s ability to create scoring opportunities and maintain a clean sheet.

“Obviously, we got the result we wanted as well as a clean sheet, which is always very satisfying — especially in international matches of this magnitude on away soil. I am pleased overall with the performance,” Busby said.

“There were times in the game when we were a little impatient, leading to a helter-skelter type of match, which wasn’t part of our plan. We wanted to manage the game, which would in turn [would] manage the crowd, but overall I thought the players did really well.

“After the match I thought we could have been a little better in front of goal, but that’s football and these things happen. The pleasing thing is that we were able to create chances, which is the most difficult part of the game. It’s not just about scoring but about being able to create opportunities, and I thought we did very well. Keeping a clean sheet and not conceding for the first time in probably four matches was also a very positive takeaway,” the head coach added.

Busby commended the players, in particular those who made their debut, including Jazmin Ferguson and Nyema Ingleton.

“I’m ecstatic with the young players who came in. Some of them were a little bit out of position but we had a real talk with each of them individually, outlining their roles and responsibilities, whether they were starting or coming off the bench. I thought they did a fantastic job, especially towards the end of the match. Our two debutants, Ingleton and Ferguson, I thought did really well,” explained Busby.

Busby praised the team’s staff for their efforts in preparing the players for the match.

“Overall, I think our staff did an outstanding job preparing the players after a long, cross-continental flight,” said Busby.

Bubsy said that the Reggae Girlz will now focus on recovery and preparation for their next match.

“We had started the recovery process this morning [Monday]. The medical and high-performance teams have done a great job. Later today [Monday] they will be doing some lifting, some pull works, and sort of relax, and then we will have our post-meeting to kind of go over some of the things we thought we did really well. We will look to address some areas we still need to grow [in] and take some of the things we want to implement into the next match into tomorrow’s [today’s] training,” Busby said.