Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter 
- IAN ALLEN/ -
Reggae Boyz' striker Ricardo Fuller (left) tussles with Panama's Luis Henriques during Saturday night's CONCACAF semi-final group World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium. Panama won 2-1.
WHILE THE country mourns the likelihood of Jamaica not completing their 'Road to Germany' campaign, the Reggae Boyz' technical staff reminded the forlorn country that all is not lost after their World Cup hopefuls went down 1-2 to Panama at the National Stadium on Saturday night.
That loss put Jamaica in the precarious position at the bottom of the World Cup semi-final round qualifying group with only one point from two home games, with only one home game to go.
The United States top the group with four points followed by El Salvador and Panama on three each.
Sebastiao Lazaroni, who was installed as Head Coach over Technical Director Carl Brown, has not lost hope yet that he will take the Reggae Boyz to their second World Cup Finals following the country's historic France '98 campaign.
"This round is not finished, we have one match more and after three match more," he said.
VERY BAD RESULT
Having said that though, he called the Panama result "very bad".
"This result is very very bad. What we did tonight with one man less we can win there," he added of his team which was reduced to 10 with Ian 'Pepe' Goodison's sending off at the 33rd minute.
At that point, Jamaica trailed 0-1 through a headed goal at the third minute from Roberto Brown that stunned the home crowd.
"They got one cross and the number 11 scored," Lazaroni pointed out. "After that for a few minutes Jamaica lost its shape but after that they created many opportunities to score."
Jamaica fought back strongly and squandered a lot of scoring chances before second half substitute's Damani Ralph and Jermaine Johnson combined for an eagerly anticipated equaliser - when Ralph cheekily flicked a grounded cross between his legs into the goal.
But relief quickly turned to anguish soon afterwards as Julio Dely Valdez scored in time-added to hand the visitors an undeserving victory.
"If you look at the game, if we had scored many of those chances this result wouldn't have been the reality," said Lazaroni, who added that "...in the second-half we took more risks, we played with three strikers so we got many many chances to score."
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Technical Director Carl Brown, after watching his team blow opportunity after opportunity wasn't, about to fool himself into thinking that the road ahead is easy.
"Central American football is technically very good football so it is going to be tough. It doesn't do any good to have to go down to El Salavador in a must win situation," Brown said of their next match, which will take place in San Salvador on Wednesday.
Rick Figueredo, the JFF's tactical analyst, says Jamaica's poor position could quickly improve.
"The most important thing is one, we go to El Salvador and we take our three points. The US will play Panama, the US are a very good team, hopefully they can take care of Panama so in a few days we have a huge switch and we are back in second place," Figueredo told The Gleaner.
However, Figueredo was quick to point out that this isn't a time to play dead but to show what Jamaicans are made of.
RESILIENCE
"From great adversity rises great teams. Are we a great team is the question that we have to ask ourselves? Do we have the ability to turn adversity into something great?, he asked rhetorically?
"I think we do, the Jamaicans have incredible personality, they can turn this around but we just have to go for it. We can't say that we are going to die. We don't have one foot in the coffin and one foot on a banana peel, I've seen that joke and I'm sure that's not where we sit," he explained optimistically.
