New Reggae Boyz head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson was left satisfied that he and his technical staff can take a lot of positives from Jamaica’s 0-3 loss to Argentina in their friendly international inside the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey on Tuesday night.
Argentine legend Lionel Messi took to the field in the second half and turned a narrow 1-0 lead into a convincing 3-0 victory with two late strikes inside the last five minutes of normal time.
Heimir Hallgrimsson was unhappy with the result, but pleased with the effort of his players, having had just two days to prepare for a contest against a team which had entered the contest boasting a 34-game unbeaten streak, and one of the firm favourites for the FIFA World Cup Finals slated for Qatar from November through to December.
“We lost 3-0 and we are never happy to lose and 3-0 is a big number even though it’s a big team we are playing, but I don’t think it reflects the game on a whole and it doesn’t reflect the performance of our players,” Hallgrimsson told the media in his post-match analysis.
I think we showed an excellent team performance for 80 minutes; we lost a little focus in possession that led to the free-kick and the second goal and from that lost even more focus for the third goal and this cannot happen,” he added.
The Jamaicans were pinned back during the early exchanges as the South Americans took control and dominated the possession as they pressed for an early advantage.
They succeeded in the 13th minute when Lautaro Martinez created an opening by easily gliding past central defender Damion Lowe before cutting the ball back for Julian Alvarez to slot home from close range.
Jamaica grew in confidence and closed the time and space given to the superior technical Argentines which resulted in a more even contest.
Heimir Hallgrimsson says it was just a matter of the players executing the game plan which was drafted.
“We kept them from creating goal-scoring chances more or less up until the 80th minute. Maybe after the first 10 minutes, we were a little bit finding our feet, finding the shape, I think we really felt comfortable in how we played our defensive game, yes, it’s hard to play against a team like Argentina with all these individual qualities but I think we grew into the game all the time,” he explained.
He added: “I think after like about 10 minutes we started to realise the things that we had talked about, we closed the spaces, the most dangerous spaces, so they didn’t create goal-scoring chances more or less until the 80th minute and when you have quality like Lionel Messi then you will convert chances when you get them.
“We got moments where we could have done better with the cross or with the final pass or with the counter-attack. We had possibilities to equalise the game until the 80th minute which was 2-0, so a lot to build on.
“I think and I hope that people see that it was a good effort from the players, they gave it their all and you can see in the dressing room that they are really tired after this one and that’s understandable when you are playing a quality team like Argentina.
“In total unhappy with 3-0, but performance-wise, effort-wise I think the players tried their best.”
Messi entered the field at 56 minutes and it was the maestro who doubled the lead at 86 minutes when he powered home a left-footer from outside the penalty area, driving the ball low past the despairing dive of Reggae Boyz captain Andre Blake in goal.
And three minutes later the little Argentine was brought down just outside the penalty box by two Jamaicans and he picked himself up, and dusted himself off before rifling a grounded free-kick past Blake to seal a 35th game unbeaten for his team.
It was also the 90th international goal for Messi, the most by a South American player.
