Finding the rhythm
Hallgrimsson says Reggae Boyz more good than bad
Published:Thursday | September 14, 2023 | 12:10 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
REGGAE BOYZ coach Heimir Hallgrimsson believes there were more positives than negatives, even though they had to come from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Haiti in their Concacaf Nations League A Group B game at the National Stadium on Tuesday.
Hallgrimsson said the two early goals were down to individual errors but he thought they showed improvements in various aspects of their game from Friday’s match against Honduras.
“Haiti is a top team in our group. I think it is good we did not lose this game. It was close.
“Even at 2-0 (down), I thought we were the better team in that moment. So it was kind of a slap in the face and not one but two slaps in the face.
“If we take away the two, three mistakes we did and gave them chances, I think we played a really good game,” he said.
He conceded that their ball possession and transitional game was far from what they desired but he believes there was a marked improvement from the last game.
“We started the game on a much higher tempo. We were too slow against Honduras. We passed the ball slowly and didn’t open them.
“We moved it quick between the flanks and used the flanks pretty well. We could have crossed a little bit more, but I thought we used the space much quicker than we did against Honduras.
“We had our most attacking threats on the ball in the right spaces. Mostly one against one, and that is what you want in your attacking game. We want to open more spaces for our top five players.”
2-0 LEAD AT HALF-TIME
The Jamaicans failed to deal with two balls over the top and Don Louicius capitalised, stunning the home crowd with goals in the 11th and 14th minutes to give the visitors a 2-0 lead at half-time.
However, Demarai Gray’s deflected strike in the 51st and Bobby De Cardova-Reid’s 83rd-minute penalty salvaged a share of the spoils, leaving Jamaica atop the group with four points from two matches.
Despite many pundits criticising the first-half display, Hallgrimsson maintained there was not much wrong in the opening stanza, apart from the two errors.
“There was no issue. It was just two errors and they had two attacks and scored.
“I didn’t feel that there was something going wrong. Absolutely not. I believe we were playing well. We played with more aggression. We knew it was going to be a physical match and we met them there.
“We stood our ground and I liked that we played with a high tempo, and we should build on this performance.”
However, the most pleasing aspect of the performance for Hallgrimsson was the character they showed to earn a point from the match.
“The coach is most pleased with the character that they showed. They fought until the end. We wanted the win and everybody saw that we pushed for the win.
“But I am most pleased with the character in the team and the togetherness to [try to] win this game, because it was tough being slapped in the face two times in the early stage of the game,” he said.