‘Down but not out’

JAMAICA’S SENIOR men’s football team, the Reggae Boyz, will be looking to scale a horde of unsettling challenges in acquiring a positive result against the United States in a Concacaf World Cup-qualifying Hexagonal fixture at Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, today at 6:30 p.m. Jamaica time).

The Reggae Boyz were already up against the odds, sitting bottom of the eight-nation standings with one point from three matches. In total, they are slated to play 14 matches in a return format, and only the top three are guaranteed a spot at FIFA’s World Cup Finals in Qatar 2022. The fourth-place team will also get a shot to participate in football’s greatest showpiece, in an intercontinental play-off.

At the moment, Jamaica is far from that position, with Mexico heading the standings on seven points, followed by Canada, the United States and Panama on five points each, then Honduras, El Salvador and Costa Rica, all tied on two. So boosting their tally from this match is key for the Reggae Boyz.

“We are down but we’re not out,” head coach Theodore Whitmore said in a press conference via Zoom yesterday. “We just have to go out and do what we have to do. We know what we have to do. We’ve to carry on from the Costa Rica game. We have to build out there like soldiers and get something positive out of the game.”

Over the course of the next week, the Reggae Boyz have three qualifiers in this October match window and had assembled a 23-man roster of players to tackle the mammoth task. However, late pull-outs by English-based Ethan Pinnock, Daniel Johnson, and Michail Antonio has left Jamaica short on numbers, with only 17 outfield players and three goalkeepers.

REROUTE

Then, with all that happening, the team’s charter flight from Jamaica, which had mainly management, coaching and other team personnel, ended up in Houston, forcing them to take a three-hour bus ride back to Austin, where they are based for the game.

Aah boy, God help us!

On the bright side, the pull-outs may well represent divine intervention, as the core group for this match has performed best so far in the Hexagonal, against Mexico and Costa Rica during September’s FIFA window.

Jamaica lost two of their three matches, 2-1 while conceding a last-minute goal away in Mexico, and 3-0 at Kingston’s National Stadium against visiting Panama. They then drew 1-1 away in Costa Rica.

Since Mexico may have been pencilled in as a loss ahead of competition, the most hurtful result would have been against Panama, as that would not have been on the books of Whitmore and his staff.

Subsequently, it has placed increasing pressure on Whitmore’s position.

Commenting on the situation, he said: “This is the story of my life. Every game we play is a must-win game. It doesn’t matter what level. Theodore Whitmore has always given 110 per cent, and come tomorrow it will be no different.”

The coach said only 15 players were at training on Tuesday when “... the training was very ‘vibesy’, but deep down I don’t know how they are thinking”.

“We met yesterday (Monday) and the players kept a meeting after. So I think it will be positive vibes going forward despite the situation we’re facing,” added Whitmore.

His assistant, Paul Hall, is asking for the players to also show belief, both in self and as a group, to upstage their mighty foe.

Asked about the likely impact of withdrawals, Hall responded: “I was asked that question at the last Gold Cup about who’s here and who wasn’t here, and I think in the words of René (Simões), ‘only who’s here can really help us’, and really help us going forward. So it’s important to focus on the players who are here, that being because we never had anybody in the midfield area, that’s where Speedie (Devon) Williams came through in the last Gold Cup and really emerged as one of our better players and one of our most improved players.

“We’ve got enough quality in the squad to beat these Americans. The mood is good. We just have to make sure that who are in the squad believe we can beat the Americans, beat the Canadians, and beat the Hondurans,” Hall remarked. “It’s as simple as that; we’ve got to go and have our beliefs and take the positives out of the game, and really just go and be positive about our performances, positive about each other.”

THREE WINS

In the 29 occasions that the countries have met, Jamaica won three times. Two came within the past six years, 1-0 in a 2019 friendly international and 2-1 at the 2015 Concacaf Gold Cup.

The teams last met at this year’s Gold Cup, where the US registered a 1-0 victory on a Matthew Hoppe goal inside the last 10 minutes. The US also won 4-1 in a March friendly this year and 3-1 at the 2019 Gold Cup, which adds to their record of 18 wins over Jamaica.

There are some Reggae Boyz who can spark the team with good performances, such as big forward Shamar Nicholson, who has scored both goals netted by Jamaica so far; Tyreek Magee, with speed and skill on the ball; busy Junior Flemmings; Williams, with calm and precise link-up play; Bobby Reid; Kemar Roofe and Lowe, who has made some really good passes out of the back of the team.

Andre Blake is an outstanding keeper, but his defence, with Lowe and seasoned full backs Kemar Lawrence and Alvas Powell, must be tighter in their marking and tracking.

Where the US have been really strong in beating Jamaica time and again through the years comes not so much from all-round quality, but team discipline and organisation.

The US team is young, the youngest in qualifying, and they too will be missing key players such as Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic, John Brooks and Giovanni Reyna. But as they showed in an overwhelming second-half performance away in Honduras, they can be quite deadly with players such as Barcelona full back Sergiño Dest.

Ricardo Pepi impressed in his debut run-out and will be in the reckoning for an attacking spot alongside Paul Arriola and Gyasi Zardes US’ selection. Hall believes his team has the quality to deliver.

“There’s so much quality within this squad right now and it doesn’t really matter. You can only pick 11 players and those 11 players, like we showed in Mexico and like we showed in Costa Rica, those 11 players can actually achieve something remarkable if they all stick together and all have that belief,” he said.

audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com

Head to head

Matches: 29, Jamaica win 3, USA win18, draw 8

Jul 24, 1988 Jamaica vs USA D 0-0 World Cup qualifier

Aug 13, 1988 USA vs Jamaica L 5-1 World Cup qualifier

Sep 14, 1991 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 Carolina Challenge

Jul 10, 1993 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 Concacaf Gold Cup

Nov 7, 1993 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 International Friendly

Nov 22, 1994 Jamaica vs USA L 3-0 International Friendly

Mar 2, 1997 Jamaica vs USA D 0-0 World Cup qualifier

Oct 3, 1997 USA vs Jamaica D 1-1 World Cup qualifier

Sep 8, 1999 USA vs Jamaica D 2-2 International Friendly

Jun 16, 2001 Jamaica vs USA D 0-0 World Cup qualifier

Oct 7, 2001 USA vs Jamaica L 2-1 World Cup qualifier

May 16, 2002 USA vs Jamaica L 5-0 International Friendly

Feb 12, 2003 Jamaica vs USA L 2-1 International Friendly

Aug 18, 2004 Jamaica vs USA D 1-1 World Cup qualifier

Nov 17, 2004 USA vs Jamaica D 1-1 World Cup qualifier

July 16, 2005 USA vs Jamaica L 3-1 Concacaf Gold Cup

Apr 11, 2006 USA vs Jamaica D 1-1 International Friendly

Jun 19, 2011 Jamaica vs USA L 2-0 Concacaf Gold Cup

Sep 7, 2012 Jamaica vs USA W 2-1 World Cup qualifier

Sep 11, 2012 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 World Cup qualifier

Jun 7, 2013 Jamaica vs USA L 2-1 World Cup qualifier

Oct 11, 2013 USA vs Jamaica L 2-0 World Cup qualifier

Jul 22, 2015 USA vs Jamaica W 2-1 Concacaf Gold Cup

Feb 3, 2017 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 International Friendly

Jul 26, 2017 USA vs Jamaica L 2-1 Concacaf Gold Cup

Jun 5, 2019 USA vs Jamaica W 1-0 International Friendly

Jul 3, 2019 Jamaica vs USA L 3-1 Concacaf Gold Cup

Mar 25, 2021 USA vs Jamaica L 4-1 International Friendly

Jul 25, 2021 USA vs Jamaica L 1-0 Concacaf Gold Cup

FIFA World Cup qualifying standings

Country P W D L GF GA GD PTS

Mexico 3 2 1 0 4 2 +2 7

Canada 3 1 2 0 5 2 +3 5

United States 3 1 2 0 5 2 +3 5

Panama 3 1 2 0 4 1 +3 5

Costa Rica 3 0 2 1 1 2 -1 2

Honduras 3 0 2 1 2 5 -3 2

El Salvador 3 0 2 1 0 3 -3 2

Jamaica 3 0 1 2 2 6 -4 1