7 months ago
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REGGAE BOYZ head coach Steve McClaren said when his team takes to the field today for the second leg of their Concacaf Gold Cup Preliminary tie against St Vincent and the Grenadines at Sabina Park, their only mission is to leave with the win under their belts.
Jamaica escaped with a 1-1 draw against their Caribbean neighbours from the first leg at Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent.
McClaren will be hoping for a better performance this time around.
“We have to win. That’s the mentality,” the Reggae Boyz boss said in his pre-game interview yesterday.
Jamaica dominated much of the proceedings in the first encounter but failed to put away their chances.
McClaren said he is looking for another dominant performance from his players, but this time, they will need to be more clinical in front of goal.
He explained that one of the main ways to do so will be to be more urgent on the ball as St Vincent is expected to play counter-attacking style of football.
“As I’ve said to the players, 75 per cent possession, 16 attempts at goal, seven on target normally wins you that game. We have to replicate that again, and the only thing we talked about is that the urgency and tempo need to be higher. We need to attack quicker, so the tempo just needs to be higher,” McClaren said.
“When we went down, the urgency went up and the tempo increased, so we need to keep that tempo against this opponent. I’ve got to say, they didn’t surprise me. I think they surprised the team with their speed in transitions.”
He continued: “They are a good team. They beat El Salvador and should have beaten them in the second game, so we knew that they are difficult opponents, but it’s up to us to do the job.”
A player McClaren believes can play a major role in getting the win is Shamar Nicholson, his choice to lead the attacking line.
He explained that with Nicholson’s physique, the forward will be a major focal point of Jamaica’s goalscoring efforts, and he expects the player to be more clinical come the second leg.
McClaren also said that in the absence of Michail Antonio, who is recovering from a car accident last year, the team will need to learn how to ensure that Nicholson receives the best service.
“In terms of Shamar, I would say he is an enigma, but we have to get the best out of him. We know how to play with Michail, and we’re still working out how to play with Shamar and using him effectively,” he explained.
“Two or three chances that we created, he was in the box and he was there. We’ve talked about improving our final-third play, getting the crosses in the box, and Shamar being the person in the box, he is our number nine.”
“We did that a few times, playing long into him, but we probably didn’t do that enough to go over the press instead of trying to go through it and using Shamar’s physique.”
The match is set to kick off at 7:00 p.m., with the winner of the two-legged tie advancing to the group stage of the Concacaf Gold Cup, set to begin in June.
Jamaica will enter today’s fixture with the slight advantage as the away-goals rule is still in effect for Concacaf competitions.
English (US) ·