Jamaica's Reggae Girlz overcome their own federation's indifference at World Cup

The 0-0 draw gives Jamaica its first World Cup point in just its second World Cup appearance. It also gives Jamaica the ability to realistically challenge for the knockout rounds in its remaining games against Panama and Brazil.

But the real coup for the Reggae Girlz is something bigger: well-deserved and hard-earned validation in the face of its own soccer federation's indifference.

The Reggae Girlz's road to the World Cup was fraught with challenges, but unlike most teams, its challenges were often created by its own governing body. The Jamaica Football Federation gave its women's program so little that the Reggae Girlz were forced to crowd source funding to help them travel to Oceania for the tournament.

But the Jamaica Football Federation didn't just let them down on the financial front. It also failed to organize international friendlies to help the Reggae Girlz prepare — and couldn't even manage to confirm necessary team training camps.

"The Reggae Girlz consist of professional and collegiate footballers who are spread out across the world," the team said in a blistering letter to the Jamaica Football Federation. "To be left questioning whether a camp will even take place two to three days before the expected start is unprofessional and often unfairly prohibitive for some of our players."

This draw with France—arguably the biggest result in all of Jamaican soccer—highlights the frustrating absurdity of the Jamaica Football Federation's disinterest. The Reggae Girlz arguably did more for the sport in 90 minutes than Jamaican soccer did for the Reggae Girlz in four years of World Cup preparations.

Jamaica's hard-fought draw was masterminded by Drew Spence, a midfielder who marshaled the Reggae Girlz in both attack and defense. The 30-year-old veteran plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the Women's Super League in England.

"We said [to each other] to go and shock the world," Spence told the BBC after the match. "Shock the world—nobody believes in us. We have to do it ourselves.

"We've gone through so much outside of football and we're all fighting a battle every single day here with Jamaica. But inside the group of players, we knew we could get something out of the game. We have belief, confidence and a real resilience. We deserve that result."