Derby Country midfield maestro Ravel Morrison inspired Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz to a 3-1 win over Suriname in their CONCACAF Nations League A Group A return-leg fixture at Jamaica’s National Stadium on Tuesday night.
The former Manchester United youth prodigy opened the scoring on the quarter-hour, only for the visitors to draw level five minutes later through Yanic Wildschut.
Morrison teed up Junior Flemmings to restore Jamaica’s lead three minutes from the break and Jamal Lowe made the game safe on 69 minutes, with Morrison again playing a key role.
Jamaica will next be in action next Tuesday at the same venue when they welcome Mexico, who will bow into action when they host Suriname on June 11.
The top team from each of the four three-team League A groups will progress to the semi-finals, while the top two teams gain qualification to the next CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament.
Having been held to a 1-1 result in Paramaribo on Saturday, the Reggae Boyz conceded the first chance of the game when goalkeeper Amal Knight was forced into an early save from left-sided player Ridgeciano Haps who had breached the porous right side of the Jamaican defence.
But then Morrison came to the fore and after defender Richard King was fouled during one of his forays into the opposition half, Morrison clipped a delightful free kick from about 25 yards over the “wall” and into the net, beating the flailing hands of goalkeeper Warner Hahn.
But the lead was short-lived as the Jamaican defenders went to sleep with a long ball over the top on the right side left Wildschut out speeding King into the penalty box before powering a left footer past Knight in goal.
The home side started to assert itself in control of the tempo and pace of the game with Morrison dropping back into midfield to engineer the attacks and the team was inches away from retaking the lead when Shamar Nicholson and Devon Williams played a neat give-and-go on the left, resulting in Nicholson’s grounded cross being narrowly missed by Jamal Lowe and Flemmings at the back post.
Shortly after the Jamaicans got their rewards for the superior play when Morrison kept a right-sided cross alive and squeeze a neat pass inside the box to Flemmings, who had only one intention, and he bided his time before driving a low grounder inside Hahn’s near post as the teams went to the break with the home side firmly in control.
The Reggae Boyz lost King shortly after the restart, and head coach Paul Hall opted for Leon Bailey instead of a direct center half swap, while pulling one of his two central midfielders, Kevon Lambert, into central defence, while allowing Bailey to add to a more attacking force.
The game was made safe when a decent team build-up play resulted in Flemmings backheeling a pass to Morrison, who sent Nicholson free into the penalty box, but the Spartak Moscow striker unselfishly squared the ball into the center for Lowe to notch his second goal for Jamaica.
Morrison later had another spectacular effort parried over the horizontal by Hahn, to add to the narrow miss from a free kick in the first half.
The small crowd showed its appreciation of his night’s efforts with a standing ovation when he was withdrawn in the 86th minute, as the team put behind all the distractions which had appeared over the last few days.
Teams: Jamaica – Amal Knight, Amari’i Bell, Richard King (Leon Bailey 48th), Jamal Lowe (Rolando Aarons 75th), Ravel Morrison (Kaheem Parris 86th), Shamar Nicholson, Junior Flemmings, Damion Lowe, Kevon Lambert, Javian Brown, Devon Williams (Jamoi Topey 86th)
Booked: None
Subs not used: Akeem Chambers, Kenroy Campbell, Earl Simpson, Tyreek Magee, Uqassa Chong, Daniel Green, Atapharoy Bygrave
Suriname – Warner Holn, Dion Malone, Ridgeciano Haps, Marc Jozefzoon (Jamilhio Rigters 64th) Leandro Kappel (Gleofilo Vlijter 64th, Roland Alberg 89th), Leo Abena, Yanic Wildschut (Jeredy Hilterman 79th), Ryan Donk, Kelvin Leerdam, Shaquille Pinas, Diego Biseswar (Roscello Vlijter 79th)
Booked: None
Subs not used: Joey Roggeveen, Ishan Kort, Albert Nibte, Calvin Macintosh, Miguel Darson, Rolando Kamble, Shaquille Cairo
Referee: Keylor Herrera (Costa Rica)
Assistant Referee 1: Ian Anderson (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Kyle Atkins (USA)
Fourth Official: Julio Luna (Guatemala)
