The entire Jamaican contingent here was a picture of euphoria after being crowned champions of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Under-17 tournament for the first time following their plucky 2-1 win over Haiti on Sunday.
Having lost out to Haiti by a similar scoreline at the CONCACAF Under-15 championships last year, and the Under-20 team suffering a 2-0 defeat to the same opponents in their final recently, the young Reggae Girlz exacted revenge on their age-group counterparts in a pulsating encounter.
Florida-based Shayla Smart opened the scoring for the Girlz in the third minute and Jody Brown got the other in the 67th minute, but Captain Nerilia Mondesir pulled one back for the Haitians in minute 71.
Head Coach Lorne Donaldson tried to contain his emotions, but managed to shower praise on his girls.
“Obviously they put the effort in because that was a good Haitian team, but tactically we did some stuff that worked. They executed as planned and they got the first goal very early, and then tactically the entire game they stuck it out, but it was a good, exciting game,”
