NOT MANY people have been paying attention to women's football here in Jamaica.

The sport, complete with a semi-professional league, is fast rising among the girls of our country and whatever the ladies endeavour to accomplish, I am of the belief, we should support.

Now, the country's national team went to the final stage of the women's World Cup qualifications and, while many don't agree, have done well.

They were drubbed 8-1 by Mexico and 6-0 by the United States, which was not flattering for us fans back home.

However, I want you to put the performance in context. Please note that Mexico and the US are bigger players in World football on the women's side of the game than is the case on the men's.

For instance, the US are third in the world while Mexico are ranked 18th.

On the men's side, the US are 21st while Mexico are a little better off at 16th.

In addition, the Reggae Girlz have not been playing at the international level for as long as the Reggae Boyz have, and already they are just as close to becoming a strong team.

What must also be said here is that the programme suffered a major setback recently. In Jamaica, the man who revolutionised the coaching of girls had a falling out with the previous administration of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF).

Coaching girls is very different from coaching the men and Vin Blaine had mastered the art of doing so.

Best football

He understood the way to get the women in his programme to produce their best football.

His loss was a big one and the football programme has had to recover.

The country's latest qualification attempt has been their first real showing after Blaine's resignation and they haven't done badly.

One of the things Blaine pointed to before leaving the programme was the fact that the Girlz were so much smaller than their inter-national opponents and that players needed to get into proper nutrition programmes, and they also needed to improve the nature of their physical workouts.

With that still being a problem, it is a wonder the Jamaican team can compete at the same level as the US and Mexico.

Another problem the Girlz face is the fact that the local leagues are not well supported.

There aren't enough fans in the stands, there aren't enough sponsors on the wagon and there certainly isn't an influx of good coaches because of some of the above factors.

Thus, with what they have had to work with, I think the Girlz have done well.

Natural ability

The question is, how do we move from here? How do we turn teams, obviously blessed with natural ability, into international kingpins.

The first thing to do is to take a page out of the books of those who have done it before.

The US used their women's college football programme to bolster their national team and advertised heavily while pumping millions into giving their athletes every opportunity to do well.

Can we do the same? Our problem is that it is tough enough to find money to aid the Reggae Boyz and most Jamaicans don't give two hoots about women's football.

But, like I said, I feel anything our citizens endeavour to be good at should be supported.

So while it seems difficult at this stage, we have to try. When the Reggae Girlz play in Jamaica, the stands should be just as full as they are when the Boyz play.

Why? For the simple reason that you are a Jamaican and patriotism and the will to see our countrymen and WOMEN do well should be stronger than anything else!

Send feedback to Paul-Andre.Walker@gleanerjm.com