‘We will get better’

DESPITE BEING critical of his team’s slow performance and lack of threat in front of goal in Monday’s Concacaf Nations League fixture against Honduras at the National Stadium, Reggae Boyz head coach Stephen McClaren said he was happy with the result.

Jamaica advanced to the quarter-finals of the Nations League after playing out a scoreless draw against Honduras to finish atop Group B with eight points, just ahead of second-placed Honduras with seven.

The performance on the night drew its share of criticism as the Boyz failed to register a single shot on goal, despite having the lion’s share of possession throughout the contest.

Entering the fixture, Jamaica needed just a point to qualify for the knockout stage of the Nations League, which McClaren believes may have had an impact on the game.

He said the match was not the squad’s best performance but felt they had done enough to achieve the main objective of the night, which was to maintain their spot at the top of the group.

“When you need a draw, the mentality can get in the way, and I think that’s what happened. We had to make sure that we got the result, and the key thing is we are on top of the league.” McClaren said in his post-match interview.

“After the first game against Cuba, we were under pressure and the boys delivered. The result today was probably more important than the actual performance. We can play better and today we made many mistakes, but the recovery and the determination to keep the clean sheet, I have to credit the boys for that.”

Jamaica ended the Nations League group stages undefeated with two wins and two draws while also registering three clean sheets.

McClaren praised the team for its defensive display which saw them conceding only once in four games played.

He said the next step is to improve the team’s potency going forward.

“The key thing from my point of view is we want to control the game through possession and we’re building towards that,” he said.

“What we didn’t have was moving from possession to, at some stage, speeding up the game. And we never quite sped up the game.

“We kind of kept it and we didn’t take a risk. So we didn’t have the movement up front and we didn’t quite take the risks. So we will need to work on the progression in the buildup and we will get better because we have good players.”

Jamaica are now awaiting the reveal of their opponents for the Nations League quarter-finals, which are set to kick off in the November international window.