Jamaica ready to fight for U20 World Cup spot

Jamaica under-20 head coach Hugh Bradford will be banking on their willingness to fight for their place in next year's Under-20 Women's World Cup to carry them through the toughest group of the Under-20 Concacaf Women's Championships final round.

Jamaica have been drawn with the United States, Canada and Panama for the final round of the Concacaf tournament, which is set to take place in less than two weeks from the Dominican Republic.

The young Reggae Girlz advanced from the first round last month in Nicaragua with a perfect record. However, they face the monumental task of being among the top two teams to advance to the semifinals and secure one of the three places from Concacaf for the Under-20 Women's World Cup next year.

While preaching the need for consistent play to stand a chance, Bradford said they are ready for the massive challenge that awaits them.

"These young ladies have been fighting, and they want to fight for this opportunity. So I expect them to come in and be ready to push themselves beyond what they did in the first round. For me, they have to stay consistent in what they are doing, and it has to be every single player," Bradford told STAR Sports.

The highest place that Jamaica finished was fourth in 2006, and while they have qualified for back-to-back senior women's World Cups, they are yet to qualify at the under-20 level.

Bradford said that while the preparation time is not ideal, they will know whether the programmes entrusted to the players have been met when they gather for training camp.

"We have to get some scrimmages in to see how the players are going to handle certain things and then make sure that we put those things in place before we leave and start the tournament, but the time is going to have to be enough," Bradford said.

According to Bradford, based on availability, the squad that competed in the qualifying round may change, however, he said his team was looking to change the approach to raise the players' level of play.