THE YOUNG Reggae Boyz hopes of making it to the final of the inaugural Under-15 Caribbean Football Union Youth Cup were dashed when they went down 4-2
to specially-invited guests Canada yesterday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago.
After 20 minutes of a fairly even game it was Canada who opened the scoring through Quebec forward Mohammed Sylla. He netted in the 39th minute to put his team ahead and Canada retained the advantage going into halftime.
WAUGH EQUALISES
Jamaica would, however, be heard from in the 56th minute through goalscoring talisman Christopher Waugh who struck to pull the teams level.
However, it was not to be Jamaica's day as the fitter Canadians rallied to score three goals in the space of 10 minutes. A kind bounce for Canadian Christopher Sheriffe in the 79th minute allowed him to run through and net the go-ahead goal for the guests. His teammates, Hassan Nasser and Marcus Johnstone, then slammed the door shut when they scored in the 81st and 85th minutes respectively.
Shadoe Hanson scored a consolation goal for the Boyz in the 90th minute.
"They were a bit above us in terms of their physical conditioning even though we were above them in terms of our skill level," Jamaican team coach Patrick Walters said in assessing the match outcome.
RAW TALENT
Despite the semi-final loss he thought that there were positive outcomes from the tournament.
"The players are now aware of the level of competition. It was a good experience and we know that we are operating on just raw talent," Walters said.
"But we have another year to prepare as we will be back to play the Under-16 tournament which will count towards qualification for the Under-17 World Cup," he said.
