Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Jamaica female football coach, Charles Edwards. - Ian Allen

Jamaica's senior women's football coach, Charles Edwards, expressed delight with the level of maturity shown by the Reggae Girlz during the three-week tour of Brazil. Edwards told StarSports in a telephone interview following the team's arrival yesterday that, despite the many challenges, the team showed a lot of guts and determination.

"I think the performances were great and adaptation to everything was pretty good," said Edwards. "There were situations where it was pretty tough for them and not one bit of complain came out of them; they just went about their task in a professional manner."

The Reggae Girlz, who were using the camp as part of their preparation for next month's Olympic qualifiers in Mexico, where they are drawn in Group A alongside the host and the United States, recorded two victories and two losses, with their biggest win a 5-1 triumph over a Rio Claro Select team.

Group B of the qualifiers will be led by Canada and also feature Costa Rica and Trinidad and Tobago.

The top two finishers from each group will move on to the semi-finals, the winners of which will qualify for Beijing Olympics in August.

Major goals

Despite the two losses, Edwards noted he had achieved some of his major goals during the tour.

"We were not using this tour just to look at the Olympic qualifiers, but also the growth of the female team in Jamaica and getting to the standard of the likes of Mexico, United States and Canada because this is what we need to set our sights on for the future," he said.

"Once we remain in a positive manner, I think we will perform pretty well in the Olympic qualifiers," added Edwards.

He also pointed out that a camp of this nature was a first for the female team and was an exceptional start by the technical staff.

"I am definitely pleased with the performances by the girls down there because my objective was not to look at results, and I think down the road we will do well if we get in more camps and more training from these Brazilian coaches because they did an exceptional job in Brazil and I am very happy," Edwards stated.