Until it’s impossible for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz to make the FIFA World Cup Finals in Qatar, the team will continue to give its best.
That’s the view of interim head coach Paul Hall ahead of Sunday’s CONCACAF Final Round World Cup Qualifying Series.
Jamaica opposes hosts Panama at 5:05 pm inside the Estadio Rommel Fernandez behind closed doors, as FIFA had imposed a ban on spectators following the homophobic chants during the September window for the qualifiers. The Panama football governing body had also been fined US60,000.
This 10th round action will also showcase the two leaders, Canada and the US, engaging each other in Canada. Mexico will play host to Costa Rica, and El Salvador hops across to Honduras in the two lowest placed teams.
Canada (19 points) led the way ahead of the US (18), Mexico (17), Panama (14), Costa Rica (12), Jamaica on seven, El Salvador with six, and Honduras on three points.
At the end of the 14-game series, the first three teams will punch their tickets to Qatar, but the fourth-place finisher also gets another chance in an Inter-Continental play-off.
Hall is leaving no stones unturned, regardless of the task at hand.
“If you want to eat an elephant, you’ve got to break the elephant down, and that’s why I brought them in different groups to speak to them about [the fact that] you get more coming out of the conversations, and yes, we do have to go to Panama, and yes we do have to do our bit to control the controllable, do what we can do, and the result takes care of itself,” the coach who replaced Theodore Whitmore last month, stated.
“However, all is not lost until it’s mathematically impossible because probably everybody believed after the Mexico game that the results would go against us, and we were out of it. But yet the results went for us, and we are here believing and if you look at the permutations of what can happen in the next few games, the oppositions Costa Rica having to go other places and win and teams at the top winning so well, then we have a chance.”
In last Thursday’s game against Mexico, the Reggae Boyz took a 50th-minute lead despite playing a man short when central defender Damion Lowe was ejected after what the referee deemed a serious foul play. VAR had intervened and asked the on-field referee to have a second look at the incident.
Liam Moore was brought in as Lowe’s replacement, and chances are he could do the job yet again, but Hall preferred to keep his cards closer to his chest.
“If I could get Van Dijk [Virgil], if he’s available, then I would go and get him and then bring him back, but we’ve got capable defenders. “I’ve worked with Moore (Liam) before, I’ve worked with Mariappa (Adrian), I’ve worked with Richie King before, and that’s why Richie King did so well in the Peru game, and that’s why he’s here, and he deserves to be here, and I’m not afraid to use anybody that’s in this group because they are here because we might need to use them.
“Yes, we have to replace Damion, but they are all replacements, and it’s just based on what we want to get out of the game, and the perfect person will fit that bill.”
Hall was reluctant to identify the possible changes but said that Jamaica doesn’t play the same team twice in a long time, so that was something to consider.
“I think yes, we might see changes, but then again, we might not. We’ve got a plan, and we’ve got a plan that we want the players to execute. If those players execute the plan really well as in training, then we can go one way, but obviously, if they don’t look comfortable, then we have to play a different way, and I think they are a capable group, whoever you put in.”
When the two sides met in September, Panama ran out easy 3-0 winners and having won nine games against Jamaica’s three, the odds are firmly in favor of Panama.
Concacaf World Cup Qualifying Points Standing
Teams P W D L GF GA GD P
Canada 9 5 4 0 15 5 10 19
USA 9 5 3 1 13 5 8 18
Mexico 9 5 2 2 13 8 5 17
Panama 9 4 2 3 11 10 1 14
Costa Rica 9 3 3 3 7 7 0 12
Jamaica 9 1 4 4 7 12 -5 7
El Salvador 9 1 3 5 4 11 -7 6
Honduras 9 0 3 6 5 17 -12 3
