Jamaica fire blanks to exit Copa America
Reggae Boyz halt Messi on his milestone appearance
Jamaica signed off their adventure to Chile as the first side to fail to score on their Copa America debut since Ecuador in 1939.
But a third successive flattering 1-0 reversal for the Reggae Boyz spelt an exit from the 12-team tournament and the same long-term problem of lack of goals for the battling Caribbean outfit.
Tournament favourites Argentina were expected to easily overturn the Boyz at Vina del Mar on Saturday with Lionel Messi eager to mark his milestone 100th international cap with a goal.
But the minnows of Group B were defensively strong, as witnessed in their other two ties with the opposition midfielders bagging the all-important goal.
Jamaica’s defence is definitely their forte, and the defeat to Paraguay was only down to a goalkeeping error that produced a freak strike.
It is at the other end of the pitch that is giving Jamaica’s head coach Winfried Schäfer cause for concern. Even with all 20 outfield players deep in Argentina’s half during injury time the Boyz still looked like bagging an equaliser.
Schäfer relied on forwards Deshorn Brown and Jevaughn Watson to deal with the cauldron inside the Estadio Sausalito, but for all the gutsy displays and resolute defending the Boyz are average in midfield and lack the finishing touch in front of goal.
Jamaica skipper Rodolph Austin admitted: “It’s a very good team, but they are struggling at the moment with scoring.”
Pre-tournament favourites Argentina were full of superstars but Schäfer only lightly tinkered with his line-up. The German swapped keepers, giving Dwayne Miller a chance between the sticks following Duwayne Kerr’s gift to Paraguay. Schäfer stuck to his solid back four, brought in Lance Laing for Simon Dawkins in midfield with Deshorn Brown replacing Giles Barnes in attack.
Argentina, who thrashed the Boyz 5-0 in their 1998 World Cup meeting, found Jamaica are no longer the pushover team of yesteryears although the same problem of lack of goals remains for the Boyz.
Pepe Martino’s side have failed to ignite their Copa America campaign, after being pegged back from a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead to draw with Paraguay followed by tepid 1-0 victories over the out-of-sorts defending champions Uruguay and now Jamaica.
The 14 times Copa America winners boasted a formidable attack of Angel Di Maria, Gonzalo Higuain and Barcelona superstar Messi.
And it was Naples hot-shot Higuain, replacing the rested Sergio Aguero, who made the breakthrough on 11 minutes that meant they topped the group to reach the quarter-final stage and sent Jamaica packing.
Di Maria cleverly nipped into the penalty area from the left wing and picked out the dangerous Higuain, who outmanoeuvred defender Wes Morgan and turned on a sixpence to fire into the bottom corner past stunned Miller.
Lifted by notching his first international goal since October, which ended his seven game scoreless run, Higuain was a constant menace for the Jamaica defence and was denied by the bar on 22 minutes after looping the ball over the onrushing Miller.
Higuain, Messi and Di Maria bombarded the Jamaica defence and Di Maria’s effort on the counter-attack – after outfoxing Kemar Lawrence – was cleared off the line on 39 minutes. As the Boyz left the pitch at half-time they looked a relieved bunch to still be in with a shot of winning.
After the turnaround Di Maria piled on the pressure, denied by the bar on 52 minutes and picked out Roberto Pereyra, only for the substitute to screw his effort wide of the target.
With Argentina boss Martino watching from the stands, following his one-match ban for stepping on the field against Uruguay, he seemed to have signalled for his side to sit back and soak up the pressure for the final 20 minutes.
Jamaica came close to notching their first ever Copa America goal but Jobi McAnuff’s telling cross meant for one of three waiting golden shirts was cleared, and sub Giles Barnes’ close-range effort was poor to trickle wide of the upright.
At the final whistle the Boyz were in a race to swap shirts with Messi, McAnuff the quickest to arrange this, and Brown trotted off the bench complete with his phone to take a selfie with the mercurial no.10.
Yet Messi has yet to win a trophy with Argentina, having come close in the final of the 2007 Copa America and the 2014 World Cup.
Many of the Boyz had tasted success with the national team, Schäfer saving his job by masterminding the shock 2014 Caribbean Cup triumph. But whether Schäfer has the ability to help Jamaica find their long overdue scoring boots remains to be seen as they tackle next month’s Gold Cup in Canada.
JAMAICA: Miller – Lawrence, Morgan, Hector (Taylor, 71), Mariappa – Laing (Dawkins, 71), McAnuff, Austin, McCleary, Watson, Brown (Barnes, 78). Subs: Kerr, Thompson, Gordon, Gray, Grant, Mattocks, Ottey, Parkes, Williams