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Reggae Girlz coach elated at Shaw’s return
November 22, 2024
Reggae Girlz head coach Hubert Busby will be hoping the women's national senior football team can end the year with positive results against South Africa. And he is happy star striker Khadija 'Bunny' Shaw will return for the pair of friendlies on November 29 and December 2 at the Montego Bay Sports Complex.
The team has been starved of a win, and hoping to break a 17-game winless streak that dates back to a 1-0 victory against Panama at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup group stages.
Shaw's addition will strongly improve their chances of a win, as she has scored a record 55 goals in 42 appearances in the national senior team. Her last appearance for the Reggae Girlz came over a year, during the first leg of the Concacaf Olympic Play-In tie against Canada at the National Stadium.
The striker, who plays club football for Manchester City, was due to make her return in October in Jamaica's international friendly against France, but had to turn down the call-up due to passport issues.
Busby is looking forward to Shaw's return as it brings a new and high-quality option to the team's attack.
"Without a doubt, the biggest inclusion into this group is one of the most in-form strikers in the world right now and a leader in Bunny Shaw," he said. "She's been in great form, as we all know, so it gives us another option up front to go along with the other attacking options we have.
"Having her back in the group helps tremendously. In terms of getting some of the service in and the final product, we're looking to have a good performance and that means to get a good result to end the year," Busby added.
Shaw has scored five goals in five UEFA Women's Champions League matches and is City's all-time leading goalscorer, with 68 goals in 81 matches, including a record Women's Super League sixth hat-trick, notched on November 8 in a 4-0 demolition of Tottenham Hotspur.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday where he revealed his 23-woman squad for the upcoming friendlies, Busby said it will be important for the team to get positive results against a tough opposition in front of the Jamaican fans.
"We want to talk about where we are now and where we want to go. So our goal is going out there to win matches. The objective is to win these two matches and we want to ensure that the performance is better than the last ones that we had before," Busby stated.
"I think the most important thing is to build on performances. There are some individual things that we want to correct and one of our other objectives is to keep a clean sheet. It's been there as the basis of our foundation of success; to be good defensively."
South Africa will enter the fixture fresh off their 5-4 defeat on penalties to Zambia in the final of the Council of Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) Women's Championship earlier this month.
The last time the two teams met, Jamaica played out a 1-1 draw against South Africa, thanks to a brilliant solo goal from Shaw.
