Disappointing result!

Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sport

DISAPPOINTING. In a word, it gives the sum total of Jamaica's result, and feeling, following their 1-1 draw against hard-to-beat Panama in their CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying (WCQ) fixture at the National Stadium Friday night.

"The guys are a bit disappointed," noted head coach Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore in a post-game press conference less than an hour before midnight. "When playing at home, we expect three points. Due to the performance, they didn't get that, so they're a bit down.

"Tonight's game is not the sort of result we were looking forward to, but unfortunately, we have to prepare ourselves for good moments and bad moments," he added.

Jamaica and Panama now have two points in the hexagonal play-offs. Honduras lead with four points after their 2-2 comeback draw at home against Mexico, while the United States are second on three points after beating Costa Rica 1-0 in a snowstorm in Colorado. Costa Rica are protesting match conditions.

All six countries will play each other home and away (10 matches) to decide the three automatic qualifiers for next year's World Cup Finals in Brazil. A fourth CONCACAF representative will play off against New Zealand, the winners of the Oceania group, for another World Cup slot.

Recently recruited Britain-based midfielder, Marvin Elliott, provided the brightest spark for Jamaica, rising to meet Demar Phillips' corner kick six yards out, then firmly heading the ball into goal to hand the locals a 1-0 lead at the 23rd minute.

However, Luis Henriquez wiped away that deficit with an angled finish from the top of the penalty box, his bouncing shot beating the
fully extended figure of goalie Donovan Ricketts into the far post at
the 66th minute.

"We played the match to win. We
played very well and we were able to draw and that was a positive result
for us," said Julio Dely Valdez, Panama's head
coach.

It was the second stalemate for Panama and the
Reggae Boyz in as many regional final-round WCQ fixtures. Only this
time, the emotions were different for Jamaica.

The 0-0
result in February against powerful Mexico at its dreaded high-altitude
Azteca Stadium - a historic feat given the prior perfect trend of
losses in Mexico City - felt like a win. Friday's draw at what Jamaicans
consider their fortress, 'The Office', was largely perceived as a
loss.

Yet it could have ended that way, given the way
the Panamanians invaded Kingston and took out the Boyz and their
capacity crowd of over 30,000, decked out in a sea of yellow, with a
dominating performance.

From almost the time they
conceded the goal, they begun pulling the strings with a neat
short-passing game and virtually had Jamaica on the run. With good skill
and cunning plays while displaying much composure, they protected the
ball and made good advances on goal, only to be thwarted with last-ditch
clearances as they tried to make one pass too many inside the 18-yard
box, seemingly intent on walking the ball into the
goal.

WASTED CHANCES

They wasted the
game's clearest chance on the stroke of half-time when unchallenged
Blas Perez couldn't finish a cross from Leonel Parris inside the
six-yard box.

That occurred just when Jamaica lost
their top central defender, Nyron Nosworthy, to injury, forcing a late
first-half replacement with versatile midfielder Omar Daley, who played
right back, with Jermaine Taylor switching to a central
role.

"We lost Nosworthy and that changed the whole
complexity of our team. That caused us to make a lot of adjustments and
that didn't help the team," Whitmore reasoned. "But we have to give
thanks for the one point."

After the half-time break,
trailing Panama maintained the ascendancy and then increased their tempo
with the introduction of number 10 player Nelson Barahona and duly
picked up the equaliser 24 minutes from time.

It was
hard to imagine so many thousands of people going so quiet in a moment.
You could hear a pin drop.

Interestingly, Elliott's
goal apart, their most vocal servings were dished out on brave Honduran
referee Hector Rodriquez, who made a lot of controversial calls against
the home team, angering players and spectators
alike.

"The referees are out there to do their job,"
was Whitmore's response to the officiating.

Valdez's
take never offered much more.

"The refereeing was very
good, even on both sides," said the man whose team shrieked when
notified of the refereeing assignment, given the relations between both
countries.

During Friday's game, Panamanians
suffocated the Reggae Boyz with close marking and consistent fouling, a
tactic that significantly took away Jamaica's rhythm and opportunities
to put their pacy game into motion.

The Jamaicans were
hardly able to put three passes together, opted to go long from the
back on most occasions, and played a disconcertingly high number of
passes off the field. There were hardly any linkages through the middle,
with central midfielders Elliott and Austin beaten to the ball or
caught in possession many times, resulting in a high number of turnovers
and not much team coordination.

ONE STEP AT A
TIME

"It's one of our concerns, keeping possession of
the ball, taking into consideration we don't have a lot of time to do
what we set out to do," Whitmore said. "But it's a game-by-game
situation and, as much as possible, we want to improve on every
situation. Tonight, I wouldn't say we were at our best, but we were a
bit fortunate."

At the offensive end, there weren't
any meaningful offerings from the much-talked-about Jermaine Beckford,
Garath McCleary and the pair of Jobi McAnuff and Luton Shelton, who
might have offered better in opposite
roles.

"Basically, the engine room, the midfield
didn't operate the way we wanted," Whitmore
observed.

Another Jermaine though, 'Teddy' Johnson,
provided much spark from the bench with dribbles half the length of the
pitch on three occasions that pushed the Panama team back to their goal
and brightened expectations of a winning strike.

It
almost came with McAnuff's stoppage-time shot from near the top of the
penalty box that went inches wide of the far post with beaten
goalkeeper, Luis Mejia, looking on.

Johnson was one of
two changes to the Jamaica starting eleven that over-performed in
Mexico, the other, ironically, being the other Johnson, striker Ryan,
who played well and got chances but missed in The Azteca. He never got a
minute.

"When you look at the Panama team and the way
we wanted to play against them, we had to make some adjustments.
Probably it didn't work out for us for a number of reasons, but we just
have to go back and look at the tape and see where we went wrong and
move on," said Whitmore.

"We're looking forward now to
the Costa Rica game," the Jamaica coach said of their next game on
Tuesday in San José.

"None of the games we play will
be easy. There will be obstacles," Whitmore
concluded.