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Jamaica's Reggae Girlz radiate the spirit that keeps the New World new

Girlz Rule: Jamaica's Allyson Swaby drives past Brazil's Marta during their women's World Cup match in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday August 2, 2023, which ended in a 0-0 tie, moving Jamaica to the round of 16 but eliminating Brazil from the tournament.
Victoria Adkins
/
AP
Girlz Rule: Jamaica's Allyson Swaby drives past Brazil's Marta during their women's World Cup match in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday Aug. 2, 2023. It ended in a 0-0 tie, moving Jamaica to the round of 16 but eliminating Brazil from the tournament.

COMMENTARY The Jamaican soccer team's stunning run in the women's World Cup reminds us of a virtue we in the New World are supposed to prize: the underdog's leveling of the playing field.

Thank you, Reggae Girlz! You鈥檝e relieved me of writing about Donald Albatross Trump.

There were a lot of grave hemispheric issues I could have addressed this week. Former President Trump鈥檚 federal indictment on trashing-U.S.-democracy charges. The arrest of Colombian President Gustavo Petro鈥檚 son on narco-money laundering charges. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele鈥檚 arrest of much of his entire population on gang-membership charges.

But when you鈥檝e covered the Americas as long as I have, you鈥檒l jump at a chance to ditch the albatrosses who bring this hemisphere down on a daily basis, and highlight the sparrows who elevate the spirit that this hemisphere 鈥 the New World 鈥 is supposed to radiate.

That means the Reggae Girlz 鈥 the Jamaican women鈥檚 national soccer team, ranked 43rd in the world, who just accomplished what few thought possible. In only their second World Cup appearance (their first was in 2019) they advanced out of the tournament鈥檚 initial group stage to the round of 16. And they did it by tying the world鈥檚 No. 5-ranked team, France; then by tying and eliminating No. 8 Brazil on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia.

READ MORE: At World Cup, my head says root for U.S. women. My heart says cheer for Reggae Girlz

The Girlz also got it done in spite of yet again having to overcome what they call the unconscionable neglect 鈥 if not the sexist dismissal 鈥 of the Jamaican Football (soccer) Federation.

As recently as 2014, in fact, the Federation wouldn鈥檛 even fund a national women鈥檚 team. The Girlz finally took the field thanks to the generosity of Cedella Marley, the daughter of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley. In just a few years they qualified for the big dance, the World Cup.

But the Girlz say the Federation treated them as if they were some transient novelty, like the female sluggers in the movie A League of Their Own, instead of the Caribbean island鈥檚 new showcase. In June, the players, including stars like Khadija 鈥淏unny鈥 Shaw, wrote an open letter complaining of the Federation鈥檚 鈥渟ubpar鈥 support even after Jamaica qualified for this current World Cup, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

Players鈥 mothers say they had to light up that 21st-century bake sale known as GoFundMe to secure the cash the Girlz needed to do the thing right.

So far they鈥檝e done the thing righteous.

The Reggae Girlz' mothers lit up that 21st-century bake sale GoFundMe to secure the cash to do the thing right 鈥 and they鈥檝e done the thing righteous.

Sure, this is just soccer. Then again, this is soccer, the world鈥檚 most passionately followed game. So the Reggae Girlz are rocking a stadium-size psychological effect. They remind the western hemisphere of a virtue we cherish: the triumph of the underdog, the leveling of the playing field 鈥 the creative, democratic New World opportunity to quash whatever inferiorities the elitist ghosts of the Old World mindset try to make us see in ourselves.

In that regard, the fact that tiny Jamaica has advanced in this World Cup by ousting powerhouse Brazil is ironically gratifying.

Jogo bonito

Richard W. Rodriguez
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AP
The Jamaican women's soccer team celebrates qualifying for the 2019 World Cup.

That鈥檚 because in the last century it was Brazil who, more than any nation in this hemisphere, leveled soccer鈥檚 global playing field. Soccer was mastered and even reinvented in the Americas, or at least Latin America, largely to prove the New World could be equal or even superior to its former Old World colonizers. Between 1958 and 2002, Brazil won five of 12 men鈥檚 World Cups, playing its samba-esque jogo bonito brew of the sport.

The Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues said that helped the country shed its own sense of inferiority, what he called a 鈥渕ongrel complex,鈥 referring to its mixed-race identity 鈥 a self-affirmation symbolized by the team鈥檚 scoring genius, the Black icon Pel茅. After Brazil鈥檚 1962 Cup conquest, Rodrigues wrote, 鈥淏razil has the creative potential of a nation of Napoleons.鈥

Jamaica鈥檚 Cinderella run in the South Pacific this summer is a fun-fresh display of that New World faith. So was this year鈥檚 uplifting performance by Haiti鈥檚 women鈥檚 soccer team, which itself made it to the World Cup for the first time ever. It admittedly lost every game it played in the tournament 鈥 but so did Jamaica in its 2019 debut.

Then there鈥檚 Colombia, ranked 25th in the world, which last weekend upset the No. 2 team, Germany. On Thursday, Las Cafeteras, as they're known, also advanced to the World Cup's round of 16. On Tuesday, their next opponent will be鈥 Jamaica.

It鈥檒l be a welcome chance to ponder the hemisphere鈥檚 sparrows instead of its albatrosses.

Tim Padgett is the Americas Editor for WLRN, covering Latin America, the Caribbean and their key relationship with South Florida. Contact Tim at tpadgett@wlrnnews.org
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