Reggae Boyz interim head coach Paul Hall has identified his players’ slow start as the primary reason for Sunday’s 4-0 drubbing to Canada in their CONCACAF Final Round World Cup Qualifier at the super cold BMO Field in Toronto, Canada.
Jamaica meekly handed the home side qualification to the Qatar FIFA World Cup Finals last this year, their country’s second trip to the global showpiece, but its first since the North American country’s debut in 1986 in Mexico.
Cyle Larin opened the scoring in the 13th minute, Tajon Buchanan double the lead on 44 minutes, Junior Hoilett made it 3-0 with 83 minutes on the clock and Jamaica’s veteran defender Adrian Mariappa completed the rout with an own goal two minutes from full time.
But it was all Canada in the opening moments of the game played in super cold conditions of 24 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 degrees Celsius, but feels like -13 degrees Celsius), with a Jamaican team parading five local-based players unaccustomed to such weather conditions.
Added to that was an extremely porous right-sided defence occupied by two highly inexperienced players, Richard King and Javain Brown, which the Canadians readily accepted.
“We didn’t really come out ready to play. I thought that we got started very slowly, we were under attack, especially down the right-hand side and Canada showed that they were really after trying to win the game,” was Hall’s immediate reflection of the game.
“I thought it took us a lot of time to try and get into the game and the goal really knocked some air out of our sails. I said to the players you can’t give a team like that a head start because you’ll never get it back because they are a good team.”
He added: “If I’m being honest with you, I don’t think they are four goals better than us, but there were some good bits in there and like I did say to the guys there were some positives there on their journey and it just amplifies that we got to look at our journey and stick to what it is that we are doing because we are on our own little journey and we can’t get carried away. But we want to be where Canada is, so we have to plan long term and try to fix things while we are in the short term.”
In other relevant games, the US crushed Panama 5-1, thanks to a hat-trick from Christian Pulisic with two penalties in the 17th and 45th+4, and the other in the 65th minute. Paul Arriola (23rd) and Jesus Ferreira (27th) were the other scorers.
Anibal Godoy grabbed the consolation for Panama in the 86th minute.
Mexico edged Honduras 1-0 through an Edson Alvarez 70th-minute strike, while Costa Roca secured at least the fourth and final play-off spot with a 2-1 win away to El Salvador with Anthony Contreras (30th) and Joel Campbell (45th+1) scoring for the victors, while Cristian Gil (31st) replied for the hosts.
Sunday’s penultimate round of games sees Canada becoming the first team from CONCACAF to punch their ticket to Qatar as they lead with an unassailable 28 points. The US and Mexico are joined in second place on 25 points, with the former having a better goal difference, with Costa Rica moving to fourth place on 22 points in fourth.
Panama are next with 18 points, with El Salvador in sixth place on 10 points, followed by Jamaica on eight and Honduras on four points.
The top three teams go directly to Qatar with the fourth-place team earning an intercontinental play-off against a team from Oceania for another chance to make the final cut in Qatar.
Jamaica goalkeeping captain Andre Blake was called into action within five minutes of the kickoff, advancing off his goal line to block a shot from Larin, who had been slipped in behind the defence.
The black-clad visitors reacted immediately with Nicholas Nelson providing a teasing cross from the left flank, but stand-in captain, goalkeeper Milan Borjan anticipated well to snuff out any dangers.
While Blake was alert to Larin earlier on, he was left helpless by his defenders as Canada probed down the left flank through Hoilett, who quickly switched play to the centre to Stephen Eustaquio, who slipped in Larin behind the defence to slot past Blake and settle the nerves of his teammates and the thousands of supporters inside the BMO Field and across the huge country who were anticipating the formalisation of qualification.
Shambolic defending, mainly on Jamaica’s right side, opened the way for Jonathan David and Buchanan to increase the lead, but they were wasteful.
Larin, too, was gifted another opportunity to double his team’s lead but failed, while at the other end Daniel Green, playing in an unfamiliar role of midfield, cut inside his marker on his right foot, but the strike on goal did not match the endeavour to create the chance and Borjan accepted with the minimum of fuss.
With the Canadians breaching the Reggae Boyz’ right side of the defence with regularity, Larin was presented with yet another chance to increase the lead, only to slop wide.
Being outdone so many times, a frustrated Brown committed a foul midway through his half, for which he was cautioned, and Buchanan was able to finally double the lead from the resulting free-kick for a much-deserved lead at the interval.
Hall rang the changes at the interval, rescuing Brown from his nightmare, and giving schoolboy Tarric Ximines his debut. Lamar Walker was also introduced at the expense of Nelson, but the changes made little difference as Ximines fared no better than Brown, save for the fact that his sloppiness didn’t lead directly to goals.
But the Canadians continued to enjoy themselves down their left flank, forcing the Reggae Boyz into hurried clearances.
Hoilett made it 3-0 by almost sauntering through the left side in the penalty box to poke wide of Blake, despite being surrounded by a number of black shorts.
And at the death Mariappa miscued a right-footed clearance, again from the left flank, into his own net, even with Blake seemingly well-positioned to collect the ball.
For Hall, there were some positives among the wreckage.
“We’ve got some good players, I just think they need the repetition of making those movements in training and going through training sessions where they are constantly being asked to produce and achieve their potential, so that the more we can get them on the ball the better,” he said.
“There were some great things from the young boys, I was really happy to give Ximines his debut, and Bygrave (Atapharoy) his full international debut and it just shows that it’s a work in progress. Ximines came on and he had a little bit of a few dodgy moments, but that’s life.
“I wanted to chuck him in because I wanted him to understand what a game like that is all about because it can only help him in the future. It’s just how we support him now going forward.”
The coach further explained that he was forced to make a number of changes to his starting team because they missed a few of their regular players.
“So moving forward, as I said to the group in there, it’s about us. We need to stick together, we need to focus on our own journey; we want to be where Canada is and there is no reason why this team can’t, but it’s about growing and making sure those young lads grow and they take it back to the Under-20s, and they can show that the boys who play in the Jamaican Premier League can take it back to their clubs, and hopefully they can keep their form going so that we can keep picking them and helping them to develop.”
