7 months ago
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REGGAE BOYZ head coach Steve McClaren was left stupefied by Jamaica’s inability to score after a 1-1 draw with St Vincent and the Grenadines in the first leg of the Concacaf Gold Cup Preliminaries on Friday.
“I think we dominated the game. I think we had 75 per cent possession and I think we created around 15 opportunities with six on target but I don’t know how we didn’t score,” McClaren said in his post-match interview.
The Reggae Boyz had dominated much of the proceedings but failed to come away with the win through a combination of faulty shooting and a solid defensive display from the Vincentians.
At the end, McClaren chalked up the result to being just ‘one of those days’ as he eyes a more productive performance come the return leg in Jamaica.
“That’s one of those games that you get and as I said before, there are no easy games in the Caribbean. This was not an easy game and I think the players now know that,” he explained.
“We got away with that one so now we have to make sure on Tuesday, we don’t allow them to make the transitions where they are very dangerous.”
St Vincent had proved very dangerous on the counter and opened the scoring in the 64th minute when Oalex Anderson capitalised on a defensive mistake to break through on goal.
64TH MINUTE GOAL
The goal came just minutes after Dexter Lembikisa had a goal stricken from the scoreline as the referee ruled that Leon Bailey had interfered with the play while in an offside position.
McClaren said for the second leg, the team will need to be more purposeful in possession and limit St Vincent’s danger in transition.
“We know that St Vincent works hard and they are organised, I said that to everybody. I don’t think we were surprised because we started well but they proved on transition they are very effective. We made one mistake and we conceded and we should have scored before that but we kept going,” he stated.
“We kept going and creating and I don’t know how they disallowed the goal that Dexter scored and we thought that’s it as time was running out.”
McClaren will take some positives from the draw as he praised the bravery of Bailey to step up for the penalty which led to Jamaica’s equaliser.
Bailey’s penalty came with the last kick of the game as Warner Brown was brought down in the box in time added.
“There is no one better than Leon to do that and show us his bravery. He has got that experience, he’s in the quarterfinals of the Champions League. He’s got that persona and he took the responsibility and got the team out of a big hole.”
The Reggae Boyz boss also praised the impact of second-half substitute Renaldo Cephas who he said gave the attack a much-needed boost in the closing minutes of the contest.
Cephas’ constant runs to the byline created several problems for the Vincentian defence and the winger came close to scoring the equaliser on more than one occasion.
“We talk about the subs making a difference and they certainly did that. I think Cephas added a lot to us on the ground, running behind and was a threat in the box but some of the opportunities that we had, on another day, we would have been two or three goals up before we conceded.”
Jamaica will face St Vincent in the return leg at Sabina Park on Tuesday with a slight advantage as the away-goal rule is still in effect in Concacaf competitions.
The winner of the two-legged tie will qualify for the Concacaf Gold Cup group stage in June.
English (US) ·