The goal came in one of few good offensive moves by the competitive home team, which found it very difficult to breach the close marking and high press defence of the Costa Ricans, after looking promising and confident in the first five minutes. Dawes beat three opponents down the middle on that play then passed to Hall, who gave Burton an angled scoring opportunity.īurton opted to chip a pass to Hall and luckily, it deflected off a defender’s boot and spooned out of reach of Costa Rica’s custodian Erick Lonnis, who had left his line to intercept a pass that never came. While unable to compose the defence and team in the way Brown would have, Dawes, a former forward/attacking midfielder, did not take any chances and made his and Jamaica’s most telling play with his only advance from the backline. They gave everything they had while dominating the homesters but could not make the all-important goal against a stubborn Jamaican defence anchored by midfielder turned sweeper Christopher Dawes, who filled the role of Durrent Brown who served a one-game suspension for yellow card offences. The loss for Costa Rica, the long-time second placed team in this final round qualifiers, almost signalled the end of their quest, mainly because one of their two remaining games will be against the only team to have won away from home, the strong Mexicans who are seeking their 10th berth in the finals. My team played their hardest but Jamaica scored the goal and won the match. They beat Canada 1-0, they beat us 1-0, they are doing everything right. “They (Jamaica) are doing everything they have to do. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: We can go there feeling really confident, not overconfident, but we’ve got that belief in ourselves.”Ĭosta Rica’s coach, Juan Luis Hernandez, also believes Jamaica are on course for France. They are a good team, especially at home. “The United States will be definitely ready for us. Their next game will be against the United States in Washington on Friday, October 3 and Paul Hall, a British-based striker in the Jamaican team, said: It is the farthest Jamaica have advanced in a World Cup campaign. These players are now convinced they have to do something very special for this country.” I can say before the mission for this team was only money. The Canadians had lost 1-0 to Jamaica a week earlier. They were once bottom of the standings after failing to win any of their first four games but with yesterday’s success, Jamaica now share the front-running position with Mexico and are two points ahead of the United States, and El Salvador who thrashed Canada 4-1 in San Salvador yesterday.

The victory, the third in a row and second in a week, lifted Jamaica to joint first position on points in the six-nation elimination that will decide the three finalists from CONCACAF. Sign up for The Gleaner’s morning and evening newsletters.

Boyd beef