New Reggae Boyz Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson has hailed his players who displayed the right attitude in their 1-1 result with Cameroon in their international friendly game inside the Omnisport Stadium in Limbe on Wednesday, even as he admits that the rendition on the pitch left a lot to be desired.
The Jamaican team which was led by Damion Lowe in the absence of the majority of first-team players, lacked any real potency in attack, but were dogged in defence.
And Hallgrimsson was pleased with the response of his players as regards their attitude and professional approach to the football environment.
“I think we are quite happy with the players who played the match,” the Icelander said. He added: “I think it is a good result for Jamaica playing like that early in the season, most of the players don’t have a lot of games under their belt.”
He cited the environment as being difficult to play in and suggested that Wednesday’s game attendance was probably the “biggest crowd most of the players have played at, 40,000 people supporting the opponents, so pretty intimidating circumstances and then playing a World Cup team.
“So I think we can be quite happy with the result, but I’m more happy with the players and how they behaved, how professional they were in the camp and how much they took in of what we were trying to teach them, so overall I think we are really happy.”
Jamaica tool a 1-0 lead on 59 minutes when Justin McMaster capitalized on the good work by Lamar Walker to slam past the goalkeeper.
However, the Caribbean side became frenetic in defence as the game wore on and it was no surprise when the home side found the equalizer through substitute DJawal Kaiba in the 74th minute.
Heimir Hallgrimsson was less impressed with the display on the pitch but he believes it is understandable.
“The game itself, of course we need to improve a lot and I think that is easy to understand when these players haven’t played a lot together,” he offered.
And he was also pleased with the fact that he employed all his substitutes which means additional minutes o and more international experience.
“Maybe a good extra thing is that we used all our substitutes, so all the players got some minutes under their belt and the guys who came in gave the team energy that was a little bit missing.”
