Donaldson works to eliminate travel blunders

Reggae Girlz head coach, Lorne Donaldson, is intent on having his players have a smooth journey with proper travel arrangements for the friendly international against South Korea on September 3.

According to Donaldson, the travel arrangements will be the focus going into the match as he tries to eliminate several shambolic situations that occurred in the past by the governing body, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).

The most recent botched travel arrangement was in July when the Girlz were delayed at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport because of unpaid baggage fees, while returning home after they had qualified for the FIFA Women's World Cup by finishing third in the Concacaf Women's Championships in Monterrey, Mexico.

The Reggae Girlz in 2019 had to travel halfway across the world to get to France, where the FIFA Women's World Cup was being played. That was their first qualification to the tournament, which they repeated for the second consecutive time in July.

"As a country, we have to see if we can travel properly. That is one of the objectives of this trip. We have to see if we can do it professionally. We have to test ourselves and know who we are going to hold accountable if it does not happen.

"So the first thing is travel properly. That is the number one focus right now without the soccer part," he said.

According to Donaldson, he has been trying to have input in the travel arrangements and has let the JFF know his expectations. He stated that while things are looking up, he will make his final verdict when the Reggae Girlz return home.

"We are just trying to say this is what we want to see, the flight should look like this and we want to minimise the number of planes we have to get on," Donaldson said.

"We know we can get to South Korea but we can minimise taking three or four flights and get there more efficiently because that is what we are trying to get.

"When we come back we will reflect and look back at what we have done and see if we can do it better. So this is a test because, eventually, we have to travel and we want to ensure that we are doing well.

"It is going to be a long trip and we are just making sure the travel arrangements are good. If the travel arrangements are good, we are going to be tired but we don't want the travel arrangements to be bad so we are over tired," he said.