Sat | Jun 29, 2024

Reggae Boyz score first Copa goal in 3-1 defeat

Published:Thursday | June 27, 2024 | 12:10 AM
Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz appeal to referee Cristian Garay of Chile during a Copa America Group B football match against Ecuador at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas yesterday.
AP
Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz appeal to referee Cristian Garay of Chile during a Copa America Group B football match against Ecuador at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas yesterday.

LAS VEGAS (AP):

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD KENDRY Páez scored in first-half stoppage time, Alan Minda added another goal late in the second half, as Ecuador beat winless Jamaica 3-1 last night in the Copa America.

Ecuador, who rebounded from a 2-1 loss to Venezuela, won their first Copa America game since a 4-0 victory over Haiti in 2016, stopping an eight-game winless streak.

Kasey Palmer’s 13th-minute own goal put Ecuador ahead and Páez made it 2-0 with a penalty kick in the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time. Michail Antonio scored Jamaica’s first Copa America goal in the 54th, and Minda got the final goal in the first minute of second-half stoppage time.

Jamaica now lie firmly at the foot of Group B as the only team without a win.

Ecuador close Group B against Mexico at Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday, when Jamaica face Venezuela.

Jamaica is 0-8 over three Copas, with the unenviable record of 12 goals against and one for.

Ecuador went ahead when Piero Hincapié centred the ball from near the corner flag and it deflected off a sliding Palmer and over backpedalling goalkeeper Jahmali Waite.

Páez, the youngest player in the tournament at 17 years, one and a half months, scored his second international goal after Chilean referee Cristián Garay called a hand ball on Reggae Boyz defender Greg Leigh, following a video review.

Antonio scored after Palmer’s corner kick bounced to Ethan Pinnock. His shot hit the back of defender William Pacho, ricocheted off Hincapié and bounced toward Antonio. The burly striker swivelled and volleyed the ball in off goalkeeper Alexander Domínguez’s right post for Antonio’s fourth goal in 16 appearances.

Garay decided not to award a penalty kick after another video review in the 75th. Michael Hector toe-poked the ball and it appeared to hit an arm and the head of Ecuador’s Alan Franco.

Minda broke in alone on White in a counterattack following a Jamaica corner kick, and slotted a shot past Waite for his first goal in six appearances, fed by a Carlos Gruezo pass.