Reggae Boyz Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson and captain Adrian Mariappa have expressed disappointment in their team’s 1-2 loss to Qatar in Thursday’s Friendly International in Austria.
In the first of two friendly games in preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament slated for the United States between June 24 and July 16, Jamaica trailed 0-2 at the halftime interval to the 2022 FIFA World Cup Final hosts before halving the deficit after the break.
“Disappointed first of all with losing, we never like losing, sometimes you say a bad result but a good performance, but I would need to say now that it was both a bad result and I think it was a bad performance in the sense that we can do much better than we did today,” Hallgrimsson told the media during après conference at game’s end.
He continued: “Could probably find some excuses for it; I think at the beginning of the game we showed that it was two weeks, three weeks even four weeks since the players played their last match. Most of them are coming back to training and playing from a holiday, so I knew that they would be rusty.
“I hope we would have more training prior to the game but I think overall we can see a lot of the things we need to fix and improve quickly. Maybe that’s a good thing but we will see in the next performance.”
Veteran defender Mariappa was equally disappointed, especially in the first-half rendition of his Reggae Boyz band.
“Disappointed with today’s result and I think the performance of the first half,” he said. “I thought we looked better in the second half, so yeah going forward to the next game now…”
Qatar went ahead on 31 minutes when they overloaded the Jamaican right back area and the skilful Yusuf Yusuf slipped in Homan Ahmed who flashed a left-footer past goalkeeper Jahmali Waite at his near post.
Eight minutes later they doubled their lead after Yusuf struck the right upright with a left-footed shot, only to react quickest to the rebound at an acute angle when he struck the goal frame yet again with the ball landing at the feet of the big striker Mohammed Muntari to lash home from close range.
As the halftime break approached Shamar Nicholson had a glorious chance to reduce the deficit but he squandered a neat pass from Dujuan Richards deep into the penalty area with goalkeeper Salah Hassan scrambling across his goal to palm away a tame shot.
It was the combination of Richards and Nicholson which created the equaliser and Nicholson was played through only for him to be brought down by Ahmed Alhamawende on the hour mark.
Nicholson picked himself up before burying the spot kick on 61 minutes.
The Jamaicans will close out their training camp next Monday when they engage Jordan in another friendly international at the same venue at 8:00 am (EST).
The Jamaicans are drawn in Group A of the CONCACAF Gold Cup alongside the US, Trinidad and Tobago and a qualifier from the preliminary stage, while Qatar is drawn in Group B as guests alongside Mexico, Haiti and Honduras.
Group C is comprised of Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador and a qualifier, while Group D consists of Canada, Guatemala, Cuba and a qualifier.
Jamaica opens its campaign against the US on June 24 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois, while Qatar will begin their campaign the following day against Haiti at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
