Jamaica Women’s Football Team Knocks Out Brazil
Written by Elizabeth Nyambura on August 4, 2023
Women’s Football , World Cup Update:
Women in sports, especially football, is not really popular. Let’s play a quiz. How many women’s teams do you know qualified in the Women’s World Cup in Africa? There are four teams that qualified but Nigeria, South Africa and Morocco all winning through to the round of 16. The competition started 20th July and is set to end on Sunday 20 Aug 2023.
This week, the Reggae Girlz, ranked 43rd in the world, kept three clean sheets in the group stages of their second World Cup, having conceded 12 goals in three defeats in 2019’s competition. The manager Lorne Donaldson said his team had “never had this much fun” after reaching the Women’s World Cup last 16 for the first time, leaving Brazil devastated.
They battled out a cagey encounter in Melbourne and Jamaica put in a stubborn defensive display to ensure their impressive tournament still had another chapter.
For the first time in 28 years, Brazil could not find their goal, thus did not progress to the next stage.Marta, 37, is the all-time leading scorer in men’s or women’s World Cups with 17 goals but will not feature again on this stage, with her sixth tournament coming to an end having made three group-stage appearances.
Brazil proved to be predictable and lackluster, struggling to break down Jamaica’s well-organized defense. The team was almost lucky in the third minute of the second-half break when Andressa pounced on a scramble in the box, but Spencer was again equal to it and Brazil’s substitutes fell to their knees in despair in the dugout. Brazil’s manager Pia Sundhage, expressing how the players were disappointed.
Jamaica have proven they are more than a match for some of the world’s higher-ranked nations and there was an outpouring of emotion at full-time as the magnitude of their achievements became clear. Captain Shaw fell to her knees and began crying, while players draped Jamaica flags across their shoulders and began dancing in the middle of a huddle on the pitch.
Goalkeeper Spencer said the team has proved their ability and hopes their success will put further pressure on their federation to react.
Jamaica’s success on the pitch comes four days before their country celebrates Independence Day!