Tony BeccaTony Becca
JAMAICA'S CHANCES of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup of football suffered a setback on Saturday night when they failed to defeat the lowly rated Panama inside the National Stadium.
While the defeat, obviously, does not mean the end of the road for the Reggae Boyz, it was a match they must have expected to win, it was a match they should have won, and they must be kicking themselves for not winning it especially as it was played at home and they had so many chances to bury the Panamanians.
REGROUP
Although they fell behind after three minutes and were so shocked that they looked disorganised for a while, Jamaica regrouped nicely, and even though they failed to fully exploit Panama's poor positional play which left so many holes in their defence, Jamaica, playing with 10 men after Ian Goodison was sent off in the 33rd minute, made raids after raids into Panama's goal area. After dominating the action and after finding the equaliser in the 77th minute though, they should have wrapped it up there and then.
With Ricardo Fuller, Ricardo Gardner and Marlon King missing a few chances to do so, however, with Jaime Penedo bringing off some brilliant saves, they did not, and with Jamaica's defence also looking porous, Panama got two wonderful opportunities late in the game to sink Jamaica and to the disappointment of the home fans, they took one of them.
It was, without a doubt, a disappointing performance by Jamaica. As head coach Sebastiao Lazaroni said after the game, however, all is not lost.
"We not lose life," said the Brazilian, "we still alive", and all Jamaica have to do to stay alive is what Carl Brown said when he was asked what he thought Jamaica needed to have done to win the match.
Goals win matches, and the technical director's answer was plain and simple score some goals.
As disappointing as it was to lose to Panama and at home at that there were moments of brilliance and a confidence that augurs well for future matches.
The moments of brilliance were highlighted by the goal that put Jamaica level.
BEAUTY.
Picking up a pass in Panama's goal area, Jermaine Johnson drifted to his right, beat a couple of defenders, slipped the ball inside, and in a Brazilian-type play, Damani Ralph, between two defenders and with his back to the goal, back-heeled the ball past a surprised Penedo and into the far corner of the goal.
It was a beauty.
DISADVANTAGE
Football is a game between two teams of 11 players. When a team loses one, that team is at a great disadvantage and despite losing Goodison the outstanding Goodison, Jamaica, one-nil down at the time and under a bit of pressure, rose to the occasion, and instead of laying back and waiting, took the game to Panama and dominated it in such a way that they should have won quite comfortably.
That was the big disappointment of Saturday night.
Apart from losing at home to a team they should have defeated anywhere, Jamaica lost a match in which they came from behind. It was a match during which, to their credit, they went forward fearlessly and confidently despite playing with 10 men, a match which they dominated for almost the entire second half before, for the second time in a row, conceding a goal in the last few minutes.
