It has been 28 years and two days to the day, Jamaica’s senior men’s football team secured historic qualification to FIFA’s World Cup Finals – France ‘98 – with a goalless draw against Mexico at Kingston’s National Stadium.
Today, the Reggae Boyz find themselves within striking distance of making a second appearance at football’s biggest showcase, having to win their last Group B match in Concacaf World Cup Qualifying against Curaçao this time, same place at the nation’s football mecca.
“We must play the game of our lives,” said Steve McClaren, head coach of the Reggae Boyz, intent of making the most of home advantage.
“We know what we must do. There’s no in-between,” he added, calling on a large outpouring of support from spectators clad in gold, green and black.
Fans – the 12th man – have accepted the call, with grandstand tickets sold out from Saturday for the 30,000-seating facility, much alike that November 16 afternoon in 1997 when 35,700 spectators crammed the stadium, forcing many with tickets to scale fences to get in and witness a crowning moment.
Kick-off is set for 8 p.m., when all final-round Concacaf 12-nation qualifiers are slated to start across three groups, with four nations each playing their sixth match.
Only the winner of each group will automatically qualify for next year’s World Cup Finals to be hosted by the regional confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean countries, in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Group B is headed by undefeated Curaçao, with 11 points, one more than Jamaica.
The group’s other contestants, Trinidad and Tobago, with six points and Bermuda, without a point after five losses, are without chance of making the World Cup Finals.
“Many people have asked me what about the last game and I’ve said for 16 months, it will always go down to the last game,” McClaren said.
Curaçao won the away tie 2-0 against Jamaica in Willemstad. They have been the best playing team in the group all qualifiers, and while the Jamaica have not been showing consistently good form, Jamaica Football Federation President Michael Ricketts says they are hopeful of qualifying on their home turf, one which had been a fortress in their 1998 campaign.
Then, a largely homegrown squad with players who had made the stadium their backyard, and with names that rolled off their countrymen’s tongue easily, racked up victory after victory until the heartwarming 0-0 result required in the final fixture against an already-qualified Mexico ignited pandemonium and set the stage for one of the nation’s proudest moments.
Unlike then, when there were three guaranteed spots for Concacaf, the World Cup has expanded from 32 countries to its biggest ever, with 48 teams, making it the easiest chance ever for 68th-ranked Jamaica to qualify, with Concacaf getting six certain spots; and the Reggae Boyz being seeded in an all-Caribbean group with countries ranked lower (Curaçao 82nd, Trinidad and Tobago 100th, and Bermuda 168th).
Three of the Concacaf World Cup positions have gone to the hosts, who have consistently shown themselves to be the top football teams in Concacaf.
“We have to win this game, and everybody would understand that by now. All the players, the staff members and coaches,” said Ricketts of the current squad ladened with British-based players of Jamaican lineage.
“We are trying to get to our second senior men’s World Cup. We want to go out there and give it our best shot because of the social impact a victory and a World Cup (qualification) will have on the psyche of every single Jamaican,” Ricketts added.
The Jamaican spirit has taken a hit with the passage of Hurricane Melissa on October 28, which left a path of death and destruction across western Jamaica, with 45 people reported killed and damages estimated at more than US$8 billion in physical damages.
And the Reggae Boyz are also using that as motivation, striving to lift a nation.
“The boys are locked in, the boys are focused, and that’s what matters most,” said striker Kaheim Dixon. “We’re not just doing it for ourselves, we’re doing it for Jamaica, the whole diaspora, and the people who have been hit in the west. That’s the people who we are doing it for now, and that’s what matters most.”
All, however, will not be lost for the Concacaf teams that do not automatically seal their World Cup slot tonight.
Besides group winners, the two best runners-up from the 12 countries will get a second chance at the 2026 World Cup, by advancing to FIFA’s intercontinental play-offs next March.
Currently, the Reggae Boyz (10 points, +8 goal difference – GD) head the second-place hopefuls, with Group A’s Panama second (nine points, +2 GD) and Group C’s Haiti third (eight points, +1GD).
Potential challengers in intercontinental play-offs for Concacaf could include South America’s Bolivia, relatively unknown New Caledonia from Oceania, and an Asian team, which will be either Iraq or the United Arab Emirates.
As the team remains within striking distance, however, McClaren wants to make this opportunity on home soil count.
“We have to be front-foot aggressive and go for the win,” he said. “That’s our mentality. So that’s what we’ll go for.”
audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com
