'Girlz ready for the World'

Andrew Price, assistant coach of Jamaica's senior women's football team, says they have assembled a very strong team for next month's CONCACAF final-round World Cup Qualifiers, and he is confident they will book their tickets for next year's tournament in France.

The Reggae Girlz have been drawn in Group B alongside Canada, Costa Rica and Cuba. Group A features the USA, Panama, Mexico, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Jamaica will enter next month's tournament oozing with confidence after easily topping the Caribbean Championships on home soil last month.

The Reggae Girlz squad features the likes of Trudi Carter, Khadija Shaw, Lauren Silver, Allyson Swaby and Ashleigh Shim.

"I think it is one of the stronger squads that we have put together for a long time," said Price. "A lot of the players have matured over the years and many of them are professionals now," he said.

"A lot of them are also playing against top opposition on a weekly basis and that has helped their development significantly," Price said.

He added that the players are very focused and he believes that once they stick to the game plan, they should be able to qualify for next year's World Cup.

"Our aim is to first qualify for the semifinals ... then we will take it from there because in order to have a shot at qualifying for the World Cup, we have to come in the top two in our group," said Price.

The 2018 edition of the women's championship will be played over two rounds. After round-robin play in Cary, North Carolina and Edinburg, Texas, the two group winners, plus the two second-place finishers will advance to the knockout round. The semi-finals, third-place match and final will take place at the Toyota Stadium, in Frisco, Texas.

The tournament will qualify the top- three finishers to the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 and a fourth team to an intercontinental play-off versus Argentina.

Squad: Allyson Swaby, Ashleigh Shim, Chantelle Swaby, Chinyelu Asher, Christina Chang, Deneisha Blackwood, Dominique Bond, Giselle Washington, Jadyn Matthews, Jody Brown, Khadija Shaw, Konya Plummer, Lauren Silver, Marlo Sweatman, Nicole McLure, Sashana Campbell, Shanise Foster, Sydney Schneider, Toriana Patterson, Trudi Carter.