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Busby: Winning second ball key - Reggae Girlz coach identifies need after 7-0 hammering by England
June 30, 2025
Winning challenges for the second ball is an area the up-and-coming Reggae Girlz will need to improve to improve their competitiveness.
Hubert Busby Jr, the team's head coach, expressed that view after the Jamaica senior women's team was hammered 7-0 by England in their international friendly football match at King Power Stadium in England yesterday.
With the team missing key regulars such as striker Khadija Shaw, goalkeeper Rebecca Spencer, Deneisha Blackwood, Drew Spence and Jody Brown, the Reggae Girlz were dominated by their opponents for almost the entirety of the contest.
Ella Toone (10th, 45th+) netted a brace for England, while Lucy Bronze (32nd), Georgia Stanway (59th), Alissa Russo (71st), Aggie Beever-Jones (85th) and Beth Mead (90+6) got one each, to give England the perfect send-off to the 2025 Women's Euro tournament which begins this week.
"Apart from the result, there are some positives to take away, another valuable lesson for the players coming through," Busby said. "Performance-wise I think there are still areas in terms of our defensive mindset, as it pertains to second balls.
"It is one of the things we discussed. We talked about the ability to win contacts and winning the second balls.
"We did a good job winning the first balls but not a great one winning the second ones, and against the top-four ranked team in the world, you are going to get punished for those things," he stated.
In spite of this, Busby noted that there were advances.
"...We had a lot of young players getting valuable minutes. We had another strong performance by Liya Brooks in goal, and a lot of players are stepping up and staking a claim to be in the squad," he commented.
Busby said they had some good moments in transition, and showed marked improvements on attacking set plays, from which they got a goal in the 21st minute, except it was waved off for offside.
"In transition we were better in moments. One of the things we want to improve on is set plays and I think it has improved," he said.
Reflecting on the disallowed goal, he assessed: "It's unfortunate, the goal being disallowed. That's a momentum shifter and changer in the game. Moments like that change games. I think it was quite harsh to take that (goal) away."
Additionally, Busby says the last portion of the game was difficult.
"Overall, I am really pleased with a lot of players, but towards the end you could see one team was getting ready to finish off their season, while the other is obviously off to the Euros. So the last 25 minutes was difficult," he pointed out.
"But I am proud of the players for trying to finish off the game to the best of their ability," he stated. "We will re-evaluate and look at the areas we need to improve and look to get ready for the (World Cup Qualifying) matches in October, where we hope to bring back the full allotment (of players) and have players available for the qualifiers in October."
