Jamaica’s head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson and his Trinidad and Tobago counterpart Angus Eve expressed satisfaction with the efforts of their team at the completion of their two-game friendly series.
Visiting Trinidad and Tobago edged the first game 1-0 on a Reon Moore second-half strike inside the Montego Bay Sports Complex at Catherine Hall in St James last Saturday, while the second game inside Kingston’s National Stadium on Tuesday evening ended in a goalless result.
For Icelander Hallgrimsson, the Reggae Boyz showed massive improvement over the first game, though they could have done better when they had their promising moments in phases of the game, while for Angus Eve, a former national player for the twin-isle republic, it was another solid performance from his unit.
“I thought we had a really good start, powerful start in the beginning, had an opportunity – a player [got] through, stepped on the ball, but clear chance to score; another spin-off behind, so we had some good chances in the first half… positive,” he told reporters at game’s end.
He added: “As the half went on I think we mixed it too little, there were too many long balls, we should have mixed it with playing on the ground more, but if we take this game and compare it to the first game it is a big step forward, [a lot of] improvements.”
He explained that the priority in this match was to see a lot of players they haven’t seen before play for Jamaica. “Everybody got minutes. Some of them really did well with their minutes, some we maybe need to wait for a little bit longer, so I’m happy with having these games.”
Despite the encouraging performance from his team, Hallgrimsson was quick to remind everyone that his tea failed to score over the two legs and that Trinidad and Tobago did, and that in football scoring goals is what counts.
The head coach was also happy with the relationship between the players on the pitch, even if they failed to capitalize on the end product.
“I think today we were working more as one team when attacking and defending. I think we had really good moments when we should have done better with the last pass, with the cross.”
He added that the technical staff is scouting for players for the Gold Cup and for the match against Mexico in the Nations League to see if the players here will stake a claim in these squads. He admitted that some of them did, though he didn’t identify these players.
Angus Eve was left beaming from ear to ear.
“I thought we put down a good, professional performance from a defensive standpoint until we made the changes in midfield with some of the guys who played the first game. We saw that the composure came into the team and we started to pass the ball and started to create some chances and cause the Jamaican team some problems,” he said.
“Other than that I thought we played a European-type team today, they were hitting a lot of long balls into the strikers and try to play the ball onto the flanks and we stood up well to that sort of European tactic, so all in all I thought it was a good exercise for us. On aggregate, we won the series 1-0.”
Trinidad and Tobago will face The Bahamas in Nassau on March 24 and Nicaragua three days later at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago, on March 27 in the Nations League, while Jamaica has an important visit to Mexico City to face the regional powerhouses on March 26 before hosting Guatemala on April 15.
