-Guyana finishes second
Jamaica’s Reggae Boys junior squad continued their terrific run to win Group C of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) under-20 World Cup qualifiers and advance to the CONCACAF qualifiers when they defeated host, Guyana at the Guyana National Stadium last night.
The Reggae boys played undefeated to accumulate the maximum nine points. Guyana with two wins and a loss finished second on six points, Grenada was third with one win and two losses to claim three points and the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) with three losses stood at the bottom of the group.
Guyana will now be involved in the four-nation playoff with the runner-up from the other three groups in an effort to make it to the CONCACAF qualifiers.
Last night in the feature match, Jamaica defeated Guyana 2 – 0 while the USVI team crumbled to another blowout defeat as Grenada whipped them 7 – 0.
In the Jamaica/Guyana clash, the teams began the contest evenly in the opening minutes, both putting together passes to get runs near goal but just about five minutes into the match, the Jamaicans began attacking in waves; winning corner kicks and putting the Guyanese defenders and custodian Richie Richards under a lot of pressure.
They however, proved to be the toughest side Jamaica faced in the group by being able to give the custodian and defenders a bit of trouble at times. It was noticeable that Guyana played very hard but at the end of the day it was a comfortable win for Jamaica.
Jamaica’s leading goal scorer, Craig Foster gave his team the lead in the 17th minute when the Reggae Boys pushed forward in numbers; got past the defence, drew Richards forward and deceived him, leaving minimal work for Foster to clean up.
Constant attacks from the Reggae Boys began taking its toll on the Golden Jaguars. Guyana was playing very high in defence which put them at a disadvantage since the Jamaican forwards moved up in support and outnumbered the defence.
Goal two was scored during one of Jamaica’s attacking stints inside Guyana’s 18-yard box when Foster blasted a shot to goal that deflected off Colin Nelson and took another direction toward goal leaving Richards with no chance of getting to the ball.
Foster reached his brace and took his goal tally to eight; he recorded a hat-trick against Grenada and USVI on Wednesday and Friday.
Jamaica’s resolute defence was also noticeable as the brick wall was difficult for the Guyanese team to get around. Guyana had minimal support in its attack while the fit, quick Jamaican side did much to get back and defend their uprights and successfully did it for the entire first 45 minutes.
The second half saw Guyana playing with more urgency but however, the team was unable to score against Jamaica. Even with substitutions, Guyana was not able to match the opposition and the stadium witnessed a see-saw battle for the remainder of the second half until the regulation time whistle.
Earlier in the day, the Grenadian side expectedly defeated the USVI easily. Like Jamaica and Guyana, once the Grenadian team discovered USVI’s weakness they continuously exploited it.
Moron Phillips led the scoring for Grenada in the first half with a brace, recorded in the 26th and 38th minutes.
At the start of the second half, Grenada picked up where they left off and kept capitalizing on their position of being fitter and playing with more team organization.
Phillips was successful in the 83rd and first minute of injuries and stoppages time to complete his helmet-trick. His team mate Mickey Gannes supported with a brace by scoring in the 48th and 59th minute and Alec Jones scored in the 69th minute to account for the other Grenadian goal.
