Pressure has eased but still a long way to go – Wint

General secretary of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), Dalton Wint, says the Reggae Boyz’s recent historic 2-0 victory over hosts Honduras in their Concacaf World Cup Qualifier has brought back a lot of confidence in the national side ahead of next month’s matches against El Salvador and the United States.

Wint told The Gleaner that the victory against the Hondurans has helped to ease some of the pressure off the coaching staff as well as the JFF following their poor start to the campaign.

“It has definitely brought back some belief in the team because the attitude, the mindset is positive and so we are very hopeful moving forward,” said Wint.

“We are also feeling a lot more relieved because we have invested a lot in this and we have been working for four years now and so we are very hopeful that we will be able to qualify,” he said.

The Jamaicans are now in sixth place in the eight-team table with five points, three points adrift of fourth-place Panama, who have eight points.

Mexico lead the standings with 14 points, three more than the United States. They are followed by Canada (10), Panama (eight), Costa Rica (six), El Salvador are in seventh place on five, and Honduras at the bottom on three.

NEXT GAME

The Reggae Boyz will play away to El Salvador on November 12 before hosting the United States four days later.

Wint pointed out that the victory over the Hondurans is an indication that the Reggae Boyz unit is very strong and he is expecting the team to come out victorious against both teams next month.

“This is something that we have worked for because our backs were against the wall and so the coaching staff and the players dug deep along with the administration and we knew that we had to get a very positive result,” said Wint.

“It has brought us up the table because we are third from bottom now. This will push the team to try even harder in the next two matches,” he said.

“We are making small strides and that is what we want to do by the end of qualification. We want to be in the top three or worse case in the top four,” Wint stated.

However, he cautioned that they must maintain their focus and discipline because there is still a lot of work to be done.

“The pressure has also eased a little bit. There is still a lot of pressure because we are not where we want to be,” Wint said.