Nightmare campaign continues

JAMAICA’S DEFENSIVE frailties were fully exposed and with that, their hopes of making the FIFA Qatar World Cup Finals sunk further in a 2-0 away loss against the United States team in Concacaf qualifying football action at the Q2 Stadium in Austin, Texas, last night.

Ricardo Pepi, the 18-year-old striker who scored on debut in his last World Cup qualifying match against Honduras, did the damage by scoring both goals at the 49th and 62nd minutes.

The US team were totally deserving of the win after dominating possession and pressing into full control in the second half to end their fourth fixture of the 14-game Hexagonal with eight points.

Jamaica, by virtue of the loss, remained on one point following another disappointing display that led to their third loss in four winless matches. The Reggae Boyz had already lost 1-2 against Mexico, 0-3 against Panama and drawn 1-1 against Honduras.

They face a quick turnaround and will play Canada at the National Stadium on Sunday, where they will chase nothing short of victory.

Interestingly, Jamaica had good reason to be happy at the end of the first half against the US. Two of their defensive players, left full back Kemar ‘Taxi’ Lawrence and centre half Damion Lowe got caught out of possession and were forced to make borderline challenges that resulted in yellow cards that may have been red.

Also, the United States, who came out very aggressive and pressed for the first 10 minutes, had the lion’s share of possession and were more confident on the ball. But it was the Jamaica team, which created the chances.

In controlling first-half play, the US moved well off the ball and had Jamaica a step behind in most areas of the field.

A big contributory factor was that Jamaica surrendered huge portions of the pitch when they never had possession, which came back to haunt them when they conceded the first goal.

However, when the Americans got in the defensive third, they were faced with greater numbers and less space, which prevented them creating an open scoring chance for the entire first 45 minutes, despite making some promising moves and crosses into the goal area.

The Reggae Boyz, on the other hand, were more productive at the goal end despite their occasional forward surges and actually produced some real scoring opportunities, along with a speculative drive from crisp-playing midfielder Tyreek Magee at the 10th minute.

Magee took a pass in deep midfield, turned, dribbled forward and unleashed a shot from near 25 yards, which dipped just wide of the far post. It had US goalie Matt Turner struggling to get across.

The Reggae Boyz went close to scoring again at the 41st minute when Bobby Reid passed to Jamal Lowe out wide. Lowe cut inside from the right and curled a low, left-footed shot to the far post. However, Turner was equal to the task, flinging himself to the right to punch the ball away from goal.

Then at the 45th minute, Shamar Nicholson met Reid’s corner kick near the top of the six-yard box, but glanced wide of the far post.

The second half was a totally different story, with the US coming out better after the reassessment.

As in the first half, they were winning the first balls and took advantage of the yards the Jamaica team was giving up, when Sergino Dest was allowed to cruise 30 yards up field to the half line after the US had repelled a Jamaica attack.

The Barcelona midfielder then crossed, and teenaged striker Pepi met the ball with a perfect header inside keeper Andre Blake’s far post to record his second international goal in as many matches.

The US, bold from whistle one, were even bolder and in command, rattling in three more shots before the hour mark to signal their growing dominance.

If there were doubts about their superiority, Pepi doubled the United States’ ascendancy at the 62nd minute when he met Brenden Aaronsen’s cross from the left and finished unchallenged with aplomb from six yards to hand his team a 2-0 lead.

The Jamaican defence was at sixes and sevens, having loosened the spaces through the channels with virtually no marking, tracking, and out-of-position runners playing catch-up to US players racing forward into offence.

Whitmore went to his bench for relief in Kemar Roofe, Javon East and usually reliable Junior Flemmings, replacing Jamal Lowe, Reid and their most efficient ball handler, Magee.

However, the reassurance sought was not forthcoming, with the US pressing high and forcing many turnovers.

In that scheme, the US were always favoured for more goals and substitute Timothy Weah went close on two occasions as the US ran rampant.

Not to be outdone, Lawrence set Nicholson for a goal in the final minute that may have earned a consolation and an addition to the striker’s rich patch, having scored Jamaica’s only goals in this World Cup qualifying campaign.

However, Nicholson took the long, diagonal pass beautifully, but hit just wide, fully reflecting their off-the-mark position in the Hexagonal.

audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com

TEAMS:

Jamaica:- 1-Andre Blake (captain), 19-Adrian Mariappa, 17-Damion Lowe, 5-Alvas Powell (3-Javain Brown 84th), 20-Kemar Lawrence, 22-Devon Williams, 15-Je-Vaughn Watson, 21-Tyreek Magee (7-Kemar Roofe 61st), 9-Jamal Lowe (12-Junior Flemmings 61st), 10-Bobby Reid (14-Javon East 71st), 11-Shamar Nicholson.

UNUSED SUBS: 23-Jeadine White, 13-Dillon Barnes, 2-Jamoi Topey, 18-Andre Gray, 8-Oniel Fisher.

United States:- 1-Matt Turner, 2-Sergino Dest (22-Shaq Moore 77th), 3-Walker Zimmerman, 4-Tyler Adams (captain) (23-Kellyn Acosta 83rd), 5-Antonee Robinson, 6-Yunus Musah (14-Luca de la Torre 77th), 7-Paul Arriola, 8-Weston McKennie, 11-Brenden Aaronson (20-Tim Weah 68th), 12-Miles Robinson, 16-Ricardo Pepi (9-Gyasi Zardes 68th).

SUBS: 13-Zack Steffen, 10-Cristian Roldan, 15-Chris Richards, 17-Sebastian Lletget, 18-Mark McKenzie, 19-Matthew Hoppe, 21-George Bello.