By Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter
Colombia celebrate their goal by Jairo Patino against Jamaica during first half action of their Gold Cup soccer match at the Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida yesterday. Jamaica's Andy Williams (left) and Ricardo Gardner look away dejectedly. - EPA
MIAMI, Florida:
A DRAMATIC turnaround in the second half was not enough to prevent Jamaica from going down 0-1 in their opening first round game of the 2003 Gold Cup tournament against Colombia yesterday.
The Reggae Boyz found themselves back-pedalling from the opening minute in the game played in a steaming Orange Bowl Stadium.
The sweltering heat took toll on some of the Britain-based players and Jairo Patino opened the scoring in the 41st minute. A nice give-and-go between himself and Jairo Castillo ended with Patino almost walking the ball into the back of the net.
"It was as tough a game as we expected. We always knew it was going to be tough and we knew we had to be tough too," said technical director Carl Brown, pointing out his team should have ended with at least a draw.
Jamaica, Brown added, gave up one chance, which the opposition converted while his team did not convert and paid.
Another factor in the game, Brown said, was the heat.
IT WAS VERY HOT
"We suffered in the last 15 minutes. The sun took its toll on our players then. It was very hot," he said.
Queens Park Rangers' Langley, who was most affected, agreed with Brown.
"It was a tough game due to the conditions. We also knew that it would be tough against the South Americans and we probably spent too much time and energy doing the wrong things in the first half," he said.
That, Langley said, was reversed in the second half.
Jamaica, who are still in with a chance of advancing to the second round play their second game against Guatemala at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.
Patino made the intentions of his team known within a minute of the start as goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts had to dive and parry a hard grounder.
That would set the tone for the first half as Colombia took the action to Jamaica. Despite not looking their best and not getting quality games from Giovanni Hernandez and Castillo, Colombia always looked a more cohesive unit while Jamaica struggled to get a rhythm going.
Jamaica's midfield failed to provide enough clear-cut opportunities for Andy Williams and Darren Byfield, who operated up front.
MOST THREAT
Ricardo Gardner operating on the left side of midfield provided the most threat. He sent in two nice crosses, the first of which forced goalkeeper Farid Mond-ragon to dive forward and hold on.
A minute later Colombia's major threat in the half, midfielder Mauricio Molina sent a cracker from 22-yards out which crashed into the crossbar and rebounded into play as Ricketts appeared beaten.
Castillo pounced on the rebound but his effort was blocked by an alert Ricketts.
From then on Colombia controlled the half as they drove towards the Jamaican area and kept their backline busy, Claude Davis and Tyrone Marshall in particular.
Theodore Whitmore sparked a counterattack in the 24th minute but miscontrolled a return pass from Williams just outside the 18-yard box. A proper control would have left him with just Mondragon to beat.
Jamaica faded more and more out of the game under the hot and humid conditions as it approached the half hour mark. They looked largely like punch-drunk fighters begging for the bell. Chief among the affected were Byfield and Richard Langley. For them, half time could not come soon enough.
Even the tireless Jamie Lawrence appeared winded and it became apparent early that Michael Johnson would not last 90 minutes.
Jamaica slowed down to almost a walk after that and almost ended the half two goals behind. Hernandez in one of his few purposeful moves played Castillo in over the top of the defence but quick reaction from Craig Ziadie, who had a good game at right back, got Castillo off-balance and allowed Ricketts to retrieve the ball.
Colombia made two changes at the beginning of the second half which did not seem to help hem much as it was a different Jamaica which came out for the second half. The rejuvenated Boyz took the fight to the Colombians as they sought to level the score. It was Colombia though who almost struck again.
In a counter-attacking play Molina crossed to give Castillo an easy chance to beat Ricketts. Casual approach and an attempt to be cute robbed Colombia of another goal as Castillo, who also had another pass to his right, tried to lob Ricketts who stuck up a long hand to block.
Jamaica's influence on the second half increased with the introduction of Onandi Lowe and Omar Daley for Byfield and Langley respectively. In his first touch of the game Lowe headed back a corner across the Colombian goal on the second attempt but Marshall could not turn the ball home.
Lowe in tandem with Williams continued to be aggressive as in a span of about 15 minutes they got more shot in than the entire first half. The positive attitude that Lowe brought rubbed off on the entire team and even Ziadie had a solid drive in the 67th minute.
A minute later a solid drive from Lowe forced a blocking save from Mondragon. The ball rebounded for Whitmore and Williams to have efforts at goal but neither was successful. Ricketts pulled off a good save in the 71st minute to deny Molina whom sent a torrid left-footer goalwards.
That aside it was Jamaica's time. With Williams, looking refreshed and Lowe looking hungry, Whitmore became more present and in one good move in the 73rd minute involving those players and Gardner, Whitmore forced a save from Mondragon at his near post. Lowe looked on puzzlingly as he was free at the far post.
More chances were to come the way of the brave Boyz with the final one falling to Lawrence in the 89th minute.
Gardner crossed inside the box for Lowe to take down on his chest but the ball would not sit for him to get a good shot off. It went to Lawrence who booted high from inside the box as he reached a bit behind for the ball.
Line-ups: Jamaica- Donovan Ricketts, Michael Johnson (82:Fabian Taylor), James Lawrence, Andrew Williams, Darren Byfield (60:Onandi Lowe), Theodore Whitmore, Tyrone Marshall, Ricardo Gardner, Richard Langley (60:Omar Daley), Craig Ziadie, Claude Davis.
Colombia- Farid Mongradon, Grerardo Vallejo, Jose Mera, Luis Amaranto Perea, Jairo Pantino (46:Killian Virviescas), Harold Lozano Capt (77:Ruben dario Velasquez), Giovanni Hernandez, Mauricio Molina, Ruben Dario Bustos, (46:Davod Montoya), John Javier Restrepo, Jairo Castillo.
