One goal, no glory, but still a good show JAMAICA'S performance at the Under 20 World Cup football finals in Argentina was disappointing, the fans are disappointed, and it is easy to understand their disappointment - particularly those who believe that Jamaicans are God's favourite people and blessed with more talent than anyone. In three outings, Jamaica drew one match, lost two, and based on the number of chances Egypt missed in the drawn match, they could easily have lost all three. That is one reason for the disappointment, and another, obviously, is that like the Reggae Boyz in the World Cup of 1998 and the representatives in Under 17 World Cup of 1999, they failed to qualify for the second round. The biggest disappointment, however, is that they scored only one goal in the three matches. The failure of Jamaica to score goals was not surprising - for the simple reason that as talented as they may be, as talented as many believe they are, Jamaicans simply do not know how to score goals. The Under 17s, for example, did not score even one goal last year, and after five matches in the second round of the World Cup qualifying matches, the Reggae Boyz have scored only three. All things considered, however, Jamaica did reasonably well. The youngsters did well enough to suggest that in time, with more exposure, they will grow to serve Jamaica's football well. As disappointed as they are, the fans should not be too harsh on a set of young players who at times paraded brilliant individual skills. The problem was that they were not consistent, and that was probably because they were up against players who, although not necessarily more talented, are much more experienced, and against teams far better prepared. Argentina, for example, boast a team full of professionals - including the diminutive Javier Saviola who Argentines believe could be the next Diego Maradona and who is on his way to Barcelona for a transfer fee of 28 million US dollars. The young Jamaicans were outgunned, but they never gave up. To their credit, they fought like tigers throughout - so much so that although they were totally outplayed by Egypt, they came away with a draw, and although they conceded three goals in the first 14 minutes and were down 4-0 at half-time, they fought back, with 10 men, and held the mighty Argentina in the second half during which they scored once and gave up only one more goal. The young Jamaicans did not cover themselves in glory in Argentina. All things considered, however, they put up a good show and Jamaicans should be proud of them. On top of that, based on the reception they received at all the matches, and the farewell at the end of the Argentina match, they were good ambassadors.
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