World Cup NOW: Putting Jamaica's success into perspective
Jamaica advanced to the knockout stage of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Wednesday, as it played Brazil to a scoreless draw. It previously played France to a scoreless draw and beat Panama, 1-0, in Group F.
On the latest edition of "World Cup NOW," Leslie Osborne, Melissa Ortiz, Kathryn Gill and Heather O'Reilly put Jamaica's success to date into perspective.
Leslie Osborne: "Jamaica's shown through this group stage how strong they are. They executed their gameplan, how disciplined and organized they are and how strong the spine of this team is with the Swaby sisters, with Spencer."
Melissa Ortiz: "This is an incredible moment. This is their second Women's World Cup, and the fact that they were able to progress so much in four years after the last one after getting knocked out. And they developed as players, they've had more playing experience, they played overseas. Khadija Shaw obviously leading the pack, but this is a team effort. To beat Brazil, one of the potential World Cup winners that we were all thinking, this is history in the making. I'm just like wowed."
Kathryn Gill: "This is a team that had to crowdfund to get to the World Cup, and they might have done that in spite of the situation that's surrounding the federation. To go through what they've gone through and to be able to take out one of the big shots in this tournament is a testament to the players on that pitch and what they stand for and also what this means for the country and all those young girls and boys that want to play football to idolize these players for just standing up big in the moment and bringing such joy to everyone who's watching it."
Heather O'Reilly: "You [Jamaica] just drew with Brazil, drew with France, world powers in Women's global football; like, you have arrived. Khadija Shaw, amazing … their back four, at times, I was like 'they're pretty narrow, just switch the point of attack, or like hit on the diagonal.' Every time that they got challenged they were able to deal with it. Hats off to them."
