Jamaican Fortunes Turn Up and U.S. Team Is Tied Down
In every game there is a decisive moment, that instant when fortune turns in favor of one team or the other.
For Jamaica on Friday night, that moment arrived in the 51st minute of its World Cup ’98 qualifying match against the United States in front of a sellout crowd of 51,528 at RFK Stadium.
Two minutes earlier, the United States had taken the lead, courtesy of a penalty kick by Eric Wynalda after Jamaican defender Ian Goodison was ruled to have knocked down a Wynalda cross with his hand.
The Caribbean team could easily have hung its collective head at that point and given up. Instead, it struck back almost immediately.
A schoolboy mistake by American defender Jeff Agoos gifted the islanders a goal that Deon Burton happily accepted, and Jamaica went on to earn a well-deserved 1-1 tie that considerably boosts its chances of reaching France next summer while making the U.S. task more difficult.
Agoos admitted afterward that it was his mistake, but given the uninspired way the United States played all evening, it was fortunate not to lose, let alone tie.
“Even though it wasn’t the result we were looking for, all is certainly not lost,” subdued U.S. Coach Steve Sampson said afterward. “It [qualifying for the World Cup] remains still very much in our hands.
“We’ve made it a little more difficult for ourselves, but I think there’s no question in our minds that we’re going to France.”
In order to do so, the United States, which is in third place, two points behind Jamaica and one behind Mexico, will have to win at least one, and possibly two, of its remaining three games.
That will not be easy, especially given the poverty of the Americans’ play Friday night. The first test is away to Mexico on Nov. 2, a likely loss. That means victories over Canada in Vancouver on Nov. 9 and perhaps over El Salvador in Boston on Nov. 16 are vital.
A win, a tie and a loss might be enough, but there is no guarantee.
“I think the team played relatively well tonight,” said Sampson, who perhaps mistook the Jamaicans for his own team. “We made some mistakes in the back that brought Jamaica back into the game. It’s unfortunate, but those things happen.
“The boys are very disappointed, but I think they also know inside that this is a team that can and should qualify for France.”
The “Reggae Boyz,” meanwhile, were left celebrating as if they had won. Indeed, it was a victory of sorts. The tie moved Jamaica ahead of Mexico to the top of the six-nation group, from which three will qualify for the World Cup. If Jamaica can win one of its final two games--away to El Salvador or at home against Mexico--it is almost assured of becoming only the third Caribbean nation ever to play in the World Cup.
But Rene Simoes, Jamaica’s inspirational Brazilian coach who looks like Groucho Marx and sounds like an evangelical preacher, is not yet willing to celebrate as his players and the 15,000 or so Jamaican fans at RFK did after the final whistle.
“We can see the promised land,” Simoes said, “but we are not there yet. It’s like a marathon, and we are in the last 100 meters. But if you don’t finish. . . .”
He left the thought unsaid.
Lack of finishing was the United States’ problem all night. It created few enough opportunities on a night when Jamaica looked like Brazil, and those it did create were squandered.
There was some question whether the U.S. even deserved the penalty. Goodison did not intentionally handle Wynalda’s attempted pass, the ball struck him on his outstretched hand. But Simoes was not angry.
“There is no complain,” he said in his fractured, Portuguese-accented English. “Was penalty kick. The [Chilean] referee was perfect.”
Smart politician, Simoes.
Agoos’ mistake was more glaring. he tried to play the ball square back across the face of the goal to teammate Thomas Dooley, the pass deflected off the leg of Jamaica’s Paul Hall and ran kindly for Burton, who fired a fierce, first-time shot beneath the body of diving U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller.
That set the yellow and green flags in the stands into a frenzy that did not let up until long after the final whistle.
Jamaica might be going to France.
So might the United States, but the emphasis now is on the might.
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CONCACAF STANDINGS
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Team W L T GF GA Pts Jamaica 3 2 3 5 10 12 Mexico 3 0 2 13 2 11 U.S. 2 1 4 10 7 10 El Salvador 2 2 3 7 5 9 Costa Rica 2 4 2 7 8 8 Canada 1 4 2 2 12 5
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