Though pleased with the young Reggae Boyz performance in their 10-1 thrashing of the Cayman Islands, assistant coach Carlton Simmonds stressed that the mission at the Concacaf Under-17 Men’s qualifiers isn’t over as they still have one more game to win to complete their objective.
The Boyz, whose win was propelled by braces from Jaquan Brown (11th, 68th), Seymour Reid (40th, 44th), and Jahmarie Nolan (64th, 80th), as well as contributions from Cadriano Marsh (25th), Zienodene McLean (37th), Owen Jump (48th), and Orel Miller (73rd), made it two-from-two in Group H, with only El Salvador now standing in their way of an historic FIFA Under-17 World Cup berth.
With the victory, they sit atop the group with six points, holding a slim goal advantage over El Salvador. A draw in Saturday’s decisive clash would be enough to secure Jamaica’s third FIFA Under-17 World Cup appearance, adding to their 1999 and 2011 achievements.
“The first objectives were met. We came into this game looking for a win, and we achieved that. Our aim was also to put pressure on the team playing behind us, and we did by scoring more goals than they did. However, conceding again is a concern—we’ll address that in our discussions, but it was a job very well done. We are now just looking for excellence because only through excellence will we reach the World Cup,” Simmonds said shortly after the win in Guatemala.
With the showdown against El Salvador on Saturday set to be their toughest task of the qualifiers, Simmonds expressed confidence in his squad, and though a point would be good enough to get the job done, he insisted that they are targeting another win.
“Before coming here, we said we had three games to win. We've won two already, and we have one more. We know El Salvador is the team in the group, and we saw them play on Monday, but I'm very confident with the team that we have. We made a number of changes for this (Cayman Islands) game and also managed this game where we had players on yellow cards and we chose not to play them, which shows the depth we have in our squad,” Simmonds explained.
“So we feel with us being 100% going into Saturday's game, I fancy our chances for a win. So the thought right now is getting everybody healthy. We have two days off, one day of rejuvenation, the next one to get prepared. Gio [Giovanni Taylor] is fine; the guys who are on yellow cards are better off now because we're going into one game and that's our last game. So our goal is clear—three wins from three games,” he added.