The City boss is in Sydney for the beginning of the tournament to watch his players represent their countries down under.
After witnessing Alanna Kennedy and Mary Fowler earn co-hosts Australia a slender victory over the Republic of Ireland, Taylor was at the Allianz Stadium to see if Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw could lead Jamaica to their first-ever point on the world stage.
Standing in their way was a France side who reached the semi-finals of last summer’s European Championships, but the Reggae Girlz upset the odds to earn a goalless draw.
But Shaw, their talismanic record goalscorer and captain, received her marching orders in stoppage time for a late challenge on Les Bleues’ Wendie Renard, meaning she’ll miss their group match with Panama later this week.
That disappointment aside, however, the boss insists City’s top scorer from 2022/23 can hold her head high on what was a historic night for her home nation.
Read Taylor’s latest column below...
I’ve been in Sydney for around a week now and, especially in the city centre, the World Cup has taken hold.
What will drive it more is Australia going deep in the tournament, which remains to be seen, but it’s been great to be here. I think there were around 40,000 spectators for France v Jamaica as well, which made for a brilliant atmosphere. It’s exciting to be around for sure.
A point is a massive achievement for Jamaica and I think they deserved it. They managed the game really well defensively, all the way up to the front of the team, and Bunny was really important in that.
She was a real leader at the top of the pitch and not just because she was captain, she took a lot of the hits and bought so many fouls for her country. She also arguably had their best moment as well with her free-kick from distance which should’ve been awarded with a corner.
We all know the quality that Bunny has when striking a ball, and it was great to see her take responsibility. Certainly from that side of the pitch, it’s not normally a right footer who would be taking the free-kick, so to hit the target like she did, it was impressive.
Of course, there was disappointment for her right at the end of the game though. It’s a real shame for Bunny to be sent off late on because she had a pretty flawless game until then.
She was running the risk on a yellow card and when you go to ground like that, regardless of whether you make contact or not, you’re in the lap of the gods a bit. That was the only minor error she made all game, but she’s got a lot to be proud about from her performance.
She’ll suffer for 24 hours or so but I think Bunny will be more than okay by the time Jamaica are back in action. Her leadership qualities will be important against Panama despite her not being available, and the team will go into the game with plenty of confidence.
It was a certainly a case of Jamaica deserving a point more than France not doing enough to win the game in my opinion. I thought it was a really brave performance and if they can beat Panama then another draw against Brazil would probably be enough depending on the game between them and France.
There’s reason for optimism, and hopefully Jamaica can get the result against Panama with Bunny missing. If the team can do a job, she’s bound to be really important in any potential result against Brazil.
Gareth Taylor was speaking to George Kelsey.
The boss’ final World Cup match will also be England’s last of the group stage, when they face Denmark on Friday 28 July.
Keep across mancity.com and our official app to hear his post-match thoughts.
