Jamaica’s Senior Men’s National Team football head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes his Reggae Boyz were deserving winners against Guatemala in their CONCACAF Gold Cup quarter-finals on Sunday.
However, the Icelander is also of the view that Sunday’s performance wouldn’t be good enough to beat Mexico in Wednesday’s semi-final.
In a game played before huge Guatemala fans inside the TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio, left-wingback Amari’I Bell gave his team the all-important goal in the second half and it proved more than enough to increase Jamaica’s record to five wins and no losses in their five meetings in the continental showpiece event.
“We learnt a lot from this match but still we did enough to win, but I would say this performance would probably not be enough to win Mexico in three days, so we need to learn from this game and we need to be more like a team even though we are happy with what is happening,” Hallgrimsson told the media during Sunday’s post-match press conference.
“We are now two games in a row without conceding a goal which is always a good sign when you are in a knockout competition, so some things we recognise that we did not do well, the same with changes. Now we might suffer to have done the changes maybe a little bit too late in the game, but it was more important to win this match rather than thinking two steps ahead than lose or concede a goal, but overall I think we had a good team performance today [Sunday] and you could see the passion of the players, there were a lot of tired legs in the final minutes of the game and Guatemala tested us in that area,” he added.
The victory puts Jamaica into the semi-finals against regional powerhouse Mexico at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada on Wednesday. It is a repeat of the 2017 semi-finals when Jamaica defeated Mexico 1-0 on a Kemar Lawrence free-kick in the second half.
“Tactically, I am happy but we can learn and improve both attacking and defending,” said Hallgrimsson. “We are growing as a team and in that sense my hope is that we will be a really difficult team to beat for any nation in the world, that will be in the end because we would have the talent to score, we have incredible speed and we have incredible individual talents, especially up front… If we can grow as a unit, defend as a unit and be a hard team to beat then I think we have a chance against every nation in the world. That is how I see it and that is what I’m happy with.”
It was a knotty affair in the early exchanges with neither team managing to create any clear-cut openings.
Jamaica had the better of play and went ahead in the 51st minute when Daniel Johnson relayed a pass to Demarai Gray on the left flank.
Gray cut inside his marker and played a deceptive reverse pass to the overlapping Bell, who cut further inside in the penalty area before wrapping his weaker right boot around the ball and into the near post.
“First half I would say we were tactically a little open in regards to defending, we were overambitious, meaning we were rushing things, but when defending we were trying to win the ball individually instead of collectively and then you lose a lot of energy in a game like this, intense game, really hot, the same when we had possession it was too much individual instead of collective. We should have passed the ball quicker to make them run instead of dribbling it too much.”
Still, Jamaica’s technical staff was not overly perturbed by the effort of the Central Americans, especially in a knockout game. He was also elated with the fact that the team managed to keep two clean sheets in a row.
“We knew that the first 20, 30 minutes they would start with a lot of power, a lot of running and I give Guatemala and Luis Tena a huge respect for this team, it’s a lot of passion and pride in this Guatemala team, really exciting team and they have surprised many.
“Thank God they did not surprise us, we were ready for what was coming and we knew the first 20 to 30 minutes we needed to be careful not to concede because there was so much energy from the crowd that they kind of suck in from the beginning and slowly you could feel their power fading away a little bit and we got our chances.
“So, tactically, it was really well played by our boys…. We should have scored more goals, we created open goal-scoring chances but we didn’t [convert] and that’s always when you play teams like Guatemala.”
The coach was also happy with the consistent Bell, the goalscorer on the day, as well as the fact that goals have been coming from just about any player on the team.
“I think that is a healthy sign of a team in building and this is just a process. For me Amari’i is a very consistent player, he doesn’t have a super match but he’s like an eight, so he always delivers when performing.
“He’s a consistent player, doesn’t do mistakes but what a goal in such an important match is fantastic for us and it’s fantastic for him, so I can only say he’s a true professional and never has any problems with Amari’i. He will always play all the minutes you ask of him and he’s a warrior and we are all pleased for him to get this goal, but he should not have been there though.”
