 All right, so we continue on the Sportsmax zone with football. It was not to be for the reggae girls as they fell 2-1 in Toronto Tuesday night to Canada in the second leg of their Olympic qualifier to lose 4-1 on aggregate. A wonderful Drew Spence free kick gave the Jamaicans the lead in the first half but responses. First from Chloe Lacasse in the 39th minute and then Jordan Hubtima in the 50th sealed the fate of the reggae girls. Well the result of certainty is that the Jamaicans also will not have an automatic spot in the 2024 women's gold cup and will be in group B of qualifying with Panama and Guatemala. What is uncertain after the result is the tenure of Jamaica's head coach, Lohan Donaldson, who stated recently that his contract would be up at the end of these games. Well joining us now on set to discuss this and review the tie is our in-house football analyst, Lige Williams. Good afternoon Lige. Good afternoon. What a game last night, your initial assessment. Well I think that the game went very similarly to what I had predicted yesterday. I think that Jamaica started the game really well. They were much faster out of the blocks. They tried to be more aggressive in the press, be more physical as they said that the Canada coach would have expected but I think quality always tells especially in midfield and I think after, especially after Jamaica scored Canada really buckled down. They played their game, they passed the ball around really well and then eventually the quality told and Canada just really outclassed Jamaica and then but that's nothing to be ashamed of. They are significantly better than us in the rankings as well. I think it was a good performance by Jamaica. A lot to improve upon. We were without a lot of players. We were missing five players. Five players had to be rotated from the first leg. So yeah, Jamaica, there's a lot to improve upon and I think that it will get done but there are questions, as I said, about the management going forward. So let's see what happens with that. I want to keep talking about the good things. I'll leave the bad things for Lance to talk about. That Drew spends free kick quality. Yeah, quality. From the World Cup, she's been really impressive from before that actually. So it's really good to see that we have that type of quality in the squad in terms of ball striking without Khadija Shah there. So Jamaica I think were really good from that aspect. From set pieces, the whole night, I think Jamaica were causing a threat. We have the high to have the physicality. It's unfortunate that we couldn't get another goal from that type of play. But yeah, Jamaica couldn't get it done. But yeah, as you mentioned, as a really good free kick, I'm sure Drew spends is really proud about that one. Yeah, we discussed yesterday on the show, Lige, the coach's comments about trying to find the combinations that could get the team goals. Now Khadija Shah is without question the most potent attacking player that the Jamaicans have, but they scored a goal last night without her. I know she had an injury niggle going in, which is the reason why she didn't start. But is it is it possible that without her, the team can set itself up to score goals in a way that maybe with her, we won't get the goals? I think that might be a little bit of a harsh assessment, sir. I don't mean to be harsh. I'm just looking at it tactically because if you have a player like Shaw who attracts so much attention from the opposing teams when they're strategizing to play Jamaica and then they play with her, not there, it will create a different kind of mindset for the opponents and how they strategize to deal with a Jamaican team. Yeah, you're absolutely correct from that standpoint. And I have two things to say, right? So first and foremost, you're right because it's because it changes the way how the Jamaican players think. Yes. Because when you have a player of that quality, you often look to them to bail you out of certain situations. So whenever you're going on attack, the players might be thinking, I'm not saying this was always the case. I'm sure they are their tactical presets, but they were probably thinking, okay, let's find Khadija, we're in a tough spot here. She'll bail us out of this. She'll get the goal. She'll do this for us. She'll create these chances. But when she's not there, the team has to play more as a collective and they did better with problem solving. They actually look better, in my opinion, in terms of going forward. So I do think that it obviously if we're going to have a lot of success, we're going to need Khadija because she is by far and away our best player. And that brings me to my second point. I don't want to hug the mic and I don't usually do these things. But in terms of yesterday, I know Ricardo asked the question. I think he was just playing devil's advocate in terms of changing her position. You're just asking the question. But yeah, post show us a lot of people saying that, you know, he's right. Maybe she should change her position to a number 10. Now I'm going to pose a hypothetical scenario to you both. Yes. Imagine now you have Ballando, a nominated striker. Obviously that means that she is of the best in her position in the world. So hypothetical situation. If Norway were to get a new coach and Erling Haaland goes to international break and that new coach is a very defensive one. And then he's not performing as he should be. For Norway. For Norway. Yes. Would the public consensus be that, okay, we're going to be all right with this defensive style of football. Let's instead try and change Erling Haaland's position to a number 10. I'm sure if anyone said that, they would be looked as an imbecile because it doesn't make any sense. So why then would you take one of the best in her position in the world of Ballando nominated striker? Manchester City. Playing for Manchester City in the English Women's Premier League and then want to turn into a number 10 to suit our defensive style of football. That doesn't make any sense to me. Why not try and change your style of play to suit her? Because that's what the best teams do. Correct. Change their football to suit their best player. You say that and I start thinking about building teams around Lionel Messi. Building teams to suit Cristiano Ronaldo. And Karee Japan is sure, despite, you know, a Jamaican reggae girls player, Manchester City player, she is off a sit in Calabas. Exactly. So I can't help but agree with him, Lance. No, I'm not saying he's wrong, but to strengthen the point that I made earlier on are to just put some fuel into the point that I made earlier on to make a scored one goal at the World Cup. And it was against Panama. It was the only game that Shaw didn't play, wasn't it? And but you have to take into consideration these goals, serials are not coming from clear goals for opportunities. We score from set pieces. And that is not sustainable. That's why we don't score even when Khadijah Shaw is in the team. That's right. So even the Freaky Class Knights set piece as well. So what I think, I have no problem with a defensive setup. Yes, in my estimation, there are maybe right or wrong ways to play football at times. But in Jamaica's essence, we have the physicality and also just the as the superior physical traits to execute a defensive game plan really well. But we have the defensive side down in terms of blocking out people. But I think in an attacking sense, we've seen really good hold up strikers before. You don't have to drop to number 10 to be a creative force. We saw Hurricane have his best two creative and goalscoring seasons playing for defensive managers in County and Marino. There are ways to just surround Khadijah Shaw, have runners people close to her, have runners going away from her so she can slip them in and then she can arrival it, finish chances if needs be. That's how you get the best out of your number nine who isn't as mobile, but you want them to succeed at the highest level. It's not to drop her out of position to play someone who isn't as good as her at the nine and still have the same problems because when we're passing through the thirties, we don't have anyone to give her the ball regardless. Well obviously, Lauren Donaldson has some work to do if he continues in the job because his tenure ends now based on his contract and there is a hint that he may be replaced. How is that landscape looking to you? Because I think the girls like him and would like him to stay and the JFF has a decision to make. Lauren Donaldson has a decision to make as well because depending on the offering that they are presenting to him, he could be dissatisfied with what they are offering with by way of salary and so on. I'm not sure what the holdups are but there obviously are some hitches to him continuing as coach. Yeah, clearly I do think that Jamaica has a huge decision to make. I would be surprised if he doesn't renew. I said all of this and people probably think that I'm hating his tactics or this at the third. He's obviously a really good coach. He's obviously a quality coach. He's done really well for Jamaica and I wouldn't want him to leave just based off that you mentioned. I've seen firsthand how much the team likes him. So I wouldn't want him to go. He's building something. We have a lot of Jamaicans, a lot of quality players. I don't want him to go. I just want him to change a couple of things if he stays. But I don't think he would be the right thing for Jamaican football to do to get rid of someone who, as I said last week, delivered our greatest accomplishment in the sport across all formats, across the genders. So I do think that it's the right thing to do to renew him and I'd be extremely surprised. Well, let me not say that because it's the JFF after all but I'd be extremely disappointed if he doesn't return. Right and he has been speaking out because our Reddit article sent by our producer today and what's for sure is in any organization, any sport when you decide to speak out and you speak out negatively about the administration, things never really works out in your favor. So we look and see what happens where that is concerned but I want to ask you about the qualifying campaign now for the reggae girls with regards to this Olympics. They now will be in the group with Panama and Guatemala. How does that look? Well, I think we saw over in the World Cup that we do have the better of Panama, not only just because we won that game but also because of how we played, how Jamaica played in that game. They were defensive, yes, but I do think we kept the ball much better against them and Guatemala aren't as good as Panama. So just judging off that, theoretically, Jamaica should have a comfortable road into the Gold Cup. It would have been nice to qualify automatically. That wasn't the case because of Canada and USA's automatic qualification but Jamaica do think will be very comfortable in qualifying for the Gold Cup. Yeah, the Gold Cup a very important tournament, Lige, and looking to the future of this reggae girls team, I quite like the blend of experience and youth in the team because there are some players there who are young and appear to have a bright future ahead of them and the succession planning, to me, is set up for this reggae girls team to continue to be a force, not only in Conker Calf but with improvement, probably make a mark on the world scene as well. Yeah, I agree. That's why I'm so steadfast in not getting rid of the coach at this point because I think it could disrupt the harmony within the team. I think it could disrupt the program generally because who is to say that a lot of these players didn't come to Jamaica or aren't playing for Jamaica because of what they heard about the program and if you rip out the heart of the program, you have to bear in mind it's not only Lauren Donaldson that would be leaving, it would be a lot of his coaching staff as well. So I think that would be very detrimental to what Jamaica are trying to achieve, hopefully they're trying to achieve a lot in terms of women's football. So I do think that everything should remain the same for now. All right, well, we're gonna watch this space because the contract that Lauren Donaldson has ends as of last night and I think a lot of interest directed at the JFF at the moment and Lauren Donaldson himself because it does appear that he's not happy about everything that is happening and I guess it's a two-way discussion and I'm not sure what's gonna happen here but we'll monitor closely the Jamaica Football Federation's technical staff, well the group that is in charge of appointing and firing coaches and let's see what happens in the coming weeks because these Gold Cup qualifiers aren't that far away so whatever Mariah and Lige they decide to do, I think they need to make the decisions quickly so that it is seamless with regard to the transitioning from the failed Olympic qualifying to the ongoing Gold Cup qualifying. Yeah, that's a problem. I have to when we lose a coach in a time where it affects the players because I always feel like it does. You bring in a new person, it's like, you know, I'm teaching you to do something one way and then a new person comes in, they have a different style. I find like that is a bit upsetting but I mean these players are professional so. All right, Lige, we're gonna leave it there. Always happy to have you on the set talking football and we have a lot more to come here on the Sportsmax zone so stick with us after the break we come back and we have a lot more to talk here on the Sportsmax zone.