Blaine aiming for perfect first-round run in Qualifiers

New coach in charge of the national senior women's team, Vin Blaine, wants nothing less than perfection for the first round of the Women's World Cup qualifiers next year.

Blaine, on Tuesday, spoke to the media in his first press conference as interim Reggae Girlz head coach, taking over from Hubert Busby Jr who is suspended pending a FIFA investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct stemming from his time as head coach at Vancouver Whitecaps in 2010.

The Reggae Girlz will begin their quest to qualify for back-to-back World Cups starting next February. Blaine says that he is laying down the challenge to his team to go through their group unbeaten with nothing but victory in all four games.

"Our aim right now is to concentrate to get to the top of the first round. We have four games and we have to win all four games. That's it," Blaine said. "We are not drawing any games. We want to win all four games. Once everything goes well and we can get the players that we want, I think we should be okay."

While Blaine has been part of the Girlz programme before and helped to identify the core talent that would qualify for the 2019 World Cup in France, he says that he is excited to work with this group of players, given their improvement in quality as well as in their expectations.

"I can safely say that this is one of the better teams I've seen tactically and in football intelligence from just watching them. And I can't wait to get them in camp and see what they are capable of doing otherwise," Blaine said.

The first opportunity that Blaine will have to see his players will be next month with a training camp being targeted for January 10 which will incorporate the European-based players who made their international debuts under Busby.

Jamaica will open against Bermuda on February 17 and will go on to play the Dominican Republic, Cayman Islands and Grenada in Group C of the first round. Only the group winners will advance to the eight-team final round which starts next July. Four teams from that final round will qualify automatically for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.