Paul-Andre Walker, Staff ReporterJAMAICA'S FOOTBALLERS, on their 'Road to Germany' campaign left the Norman Manley International Airport early on Sunday morning, not even 12 hours after watching their fans walk out of the National Stadium early on Saturday night after the jaw-dropping 1-2 defeat to Panama.
The already battle-weary contingent encountered an equally tiresome journey via a Miami connection, that ended at the ghastly hour of 4:00a.m. yesterday morning.
After settling in they now have to deal with the situation of how to turn their circumstances around.
GOOD HEALTH
With the exception of young Jermaine Taylor, who has been drafted into the squad to replace the suspended Ian 'Pepe' Goodison, the squad remains the same and in good health.
The Boyz underwent a training session last evening in order to acclimatise themselves to the conditions in El Salvador, an activity that their campaign could hinge upon.
With the United States at the top of their group (4 points) followed closely by El Salvador and Panama each on three points, Jamaica with one point cannot afford to come away from this game with less than three points and so must treat this game like they would a home game, a fact that was reiterated by Technical Director Carl Brown.
GOING TO BE TOUGH
"It just gets tougher. We are just going to have to go out there and start winning some games. We go to El Salvador tomorrow, it's going to be tough down there but we need to win that one," he said.
Prior to the start of the semi-final round, Jamaica were expected to have at worst four points after their first two home games. That would have meant that they could have drawn their remaining away games and still hold a good chance of making it to the final round.
However, the defeat to Panama has put a serious dent into those plans, a fact that Brown explained in no uncertain terms.
"This definitely has hurt our whole plan."
The game in San Salvador tomorrow is scheduled to start at 7:30p.m. (8:30p.m. local time).
