Midfielder Andy Williams gets between Kenlyn Gonsalves (left) and Kendall Velox of St Vincent and the Grenadines before hitting past goalkeeper Melvin Andrews to give Jamaica a 1-0 lead at the National Stadium yesterday. Looking on is Williams' teammate Tyrone Marshall. IT NEVER happened. The goalfest that the Reggae Boyz and their supporters were expecting and the "mashing up of the Office" which the St Vincent and the Grenadines party promised.
Nonetheless the home side won the game 2-0 and picked up the three points they needed to qualify for the group of six playoffs and maintain their lead in Group D with 12 points.
Andy Williams opened the scoring for Jamaica in the 44th minute while the red hot Onandi Lowe kept up his goal-a-game strike rate with a strike in the 49th minute to satisfy the capacity crowd.
It was not a game of the highest quality as the home team it appeared came into the match believing that it was already won. The early minutes were largely an individual affair as a number of players went for the gallery play instead of trying to find the goal.
Despite all this the locals still looked the better of the two teams and created openings in the St Vincent and the Grenadines defence quite early. Within the first six minutes Jamaica had the visitors backpedalling with three dangerous moves. The first took place in the second minute when Lowe worked his way past Dexter Walker and with only one defender on Walter Boyd's back, he chose to beat Walker once more and lost it.
A minute later Lowe worked his way betweeen two defenders inside the six-yard box but could not get much power or direction on his header. In the fifth minute, left back Steve Malcolm crossed the ball fom the left to Tyrone Marshall who was overlapping on the right. Marshall's header found Lowe at the far post but faced with the option of heading towards the goal or heading back across the goal for two teammates, he chose the former without much success.
Following a speculative shot three minutes earlier, St Vincent and the Grenadines had their first real opportunity at goal in the ninth minute when the speedy Rodney Jack picked up a pass on the counter attack. Taking the ball in stride, he outran sweeper Shavar Thomas leaving him on the seat of his pants before cutting inside Linval Dixon and squeezing his shot just wide.
Jamaica earned a number of free kicks as Lowe and Boyd found themselves being fouled just outside the box. Maybe they were the furniture which Dexter Walker promised to tumble over and mash up. None of the free kicks were successful as Lowe blasted those he took into the wall and Williams floated his, just high.
After one such free kick in the 18th minute, the rebound
