Reggae Boyz Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson was left bemused after his charges squandered a first-half lead to go down 1-2 to Jordan in their international friendly game at the Wiener Neustadt Ergo Arena in Austria on Monday.
The loss left the Icelander winless in his seven games in charge of the team since he joined last year, but he thought the Jamaicans had put themselves in a really great position to change that dubious statistic.
“We are of course not happy not to win, especially the game today. I think it was a good opportunity to win … a very strange game in my opinion. The first half was quite good, so the plan was to go high, press them and win the ball high up on the pitch,” he explained to the Jamaican media at the game’s end.
“We knew that they are a good passing side but we wanted to use this opportunity to go higher up on the pitch and play a high press, and it was pretty good, (we) got better and better in the first half so we were happy with the first half in the end.”
The New York Red Bull Cory Burke put his side ahead via a penalty on 39 minutes to take the Jamaicans 1-0 ahead at the interval.
“There was good energy, good attitude, had some good build-ups in attack and got really good goal-scoring chances, so 1-0 at halftime so we were pretty satisfied. But there were some things we wanted to improve,” he added.
At that stage, Hallgrimsson was pleased with the rendition of the Reggae Boyz, though they could have extended the lead. But the second half, he believes, was filled with sloppiness and wayward plays.
“Second half was a little bit strange, we were lacking the energy we had in the first half, so less energy but we created still very good chances to finish the game with a second goal in the match, but we didn’t and we had some very good chances when we went forward, but still we were open and not balanced or focused in defending so they got two really good counterattacks and scored two transition goals.”
The coach was particularly disappointed with the manner in which Jamaica conceded the equalizer and the go-ahead goal.
“Both of them came from great goal-scoring chances from us (but) we didn’t shoot on goal, we didn’t finish the attack and ended up conceding at the other end,” he bemoaned.
Mahmoud Al Mardi equalized in the 56th minute and Ali Olwan delivered the gut punch in the 63rd minute to complete the comeback, while leaving winless in their two-game friendly during the training camp in Austria.
The Jamaicans had earlier lost by a similar margin to last year’s FIFA World Cup hosts Qatar at the same venue.
Hallgrimsson was candid in his reflection.
“Heavily punished really hard for not taking our chances, but second half some silly decisions, silly executions in passing, so not happy with the second half and when they scored the second goal it was kind of a street football and it could have gone either way but in the end, we only managed to score one goal.”
However, there was some consolation as the coach admits that he is happy with some of the good things the team did, but unhappy with some of the sloppiness. He firmly believes that Monday’s overall play was better than that against Qatar.
He is now hoping the players will continue to improve.
Upon reviewing the pre-Gold Cup training camp in Austria, Hallgrimsson was left satisfied.
“It’s been quite good, we’ve at least seen these players that are here, they’ve had a chance to not only show themselves in the training sessions but also a lot of playing time for these players, so it’s good in that way, and we are happy that we can provide at least good matches, good opponents for them, so happy with the time here in Austria.”
The team is now set to depart for Chicago to prepare for their Gold Cup opener against the defending champion United States this Saturday.
