Sport

We were too defensive

By AUDLEY BOYD, Asst. Sport Editor

Jamaica's goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers (right) watches the ball during the first half action against Mexico in the qualifying round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup match in Houston, on Wednesday. - Reuters

Houston, Texas:

JAMAICA'S CAPTAIN ANDY Williams believes his coach should have gone for a more offensive approach to save the CONCACAF Gold Cup match the team lost 1-0 to Mexico at the Houston Reliant Stadium on Wednesday night.

Chasing an equaliser in the second half, coach Wendell Downswell made a double change at the hour mark, replacing forwards Damani Ralph and Teofore Bennett with regular starter Ricardo Fuller and Jermaine Johnson.

Leave Damani

When asked what could have been done differently for a better result, the Reggae Boyz captain, while welcoming the changes, reasoned that his coach should have left Ralph, who was troubling the Mexican defence with his strength and dribbling, on the pitch and taken out an additional defender.

"I thought the coach should have taken a chance and played even a 4-4-3 or 4-4-2 formation, take off one of the defenders and try to put Teddy (Johnson) in the midfield and keep Damani on," Williams explained.

"I thought Damani was playing well. I think try to change the formation and try attacking them more because we were getting the chances, we were creating the openings. But it's the coach's decision, he decided to go with two forwards straight up and we still created chances to score."

Williams himself hit a powerful shot inside the final minute when Fuller played him a pass but Mexican goalie Moises Munoz made a good save to maintain his team's one-goal advantage.

Alberto Medina gave Mexico that lead at the 19th minute after Luis Ernesto Perez played him a chipped pass down the centre of the field between the two central defenders caught square. Medina ran free at goalie Shawn Sawyers and blasted a low shot past him into the back of the net.

Mexico, the leading team in the Confed, were more aggressive from the start and made deep advances into Jamaica's defensive area the entire night. They were particularly dangerous while launching several raids and playing many squares across Jamaica's goal in the first half. But the biggest problems came from their positional inter-changing which made them difficult to track and often had Jamaica chasing as the opposing defenders got into decent positions to shoot or make crosses on goal.

Apart from their own good rotational play, Mexico's forward movement in the first half was facilitated by the Jamaicans who gave them too much respect by surrendering too much space and allowing them an easy passage into their defensive third.

To Jamaica's credit, Mexico created one more clear scoring chance for the half ­ following a series of one-twos ­ which Gonzalo Pineda hit low and Sawyers saved at the 28th minute.

Better second half

When they had the ball, the Boyz were more assured and made some good combinations that produced very good scoring opportunities in the first half. The better ones fell for Teofore Bennett, who shot wide of an empty goal from an angle after beating the Mexican goalie before they had scored; and later Omar Daley, whose shot on the stroke of half-time beat the goalie but was deflected wide by Ricardo Osorio.

Jamaica played a much better second half and got increasingly dangerous when Fuller especially, and Johnson joined the action and were running Mexico into the ground. But they negated that good by continuing to commit too few players into attack and several good openings from crosses went astray.

The loss ended Jamaica 14-match unbeaten streak and forces them to make the trip from Houston to Boston for tomorrow's quarter-final against the United States, forcing the team which begun its campaign in Los Angeles last week Wednesday to travel so soon after arriving here on Monday.

"We were trying our best to stay here, I think it all started from the South Africa game after tying up I thought we should have tried to get that win to remain here in Houston but we just couldn't get that winning goal," explained Williams while pointing to Sunday's 3-3 draw with South Africa in Los Angeles. "I wasn't hoping to play the U.S. this early but the time has come to play them on Saturday and we just have to look at it that way."

Besides losing the match to finish third in the group behind Mexico (six points) and South Africa (five).

Two blows

Jamaica suffered two huge blows when defender Claude Davis was knocked unconscious by Hector Altamarino's hefty free kick and Omar Daley, yellow carded for the dissenting behaviour of bouncing the ball hard into the ground in the first half, was red carded at the 70th minute for a second bookable offence on a tackle.

"He had a concussion on the field," the Jamaica team physician Dr. Charlie Roberts indicated. "He had a concussion on the field. We're trying to get him to the hospital to get a scan of the brain done now."

He received treatment and returned to play, but was taken to hospital after the game.

"He actually blocked out on the field ... we were trying to stop him going back on the field," Dr. Roberts added.

The Jamaicans left Houston yesterday after noon and arrived in Boston later in the evening.