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Reggae Boyz Earn A Draw in Costa Rica

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World Cup Qualifiers Costa Rica vs Jamaica Post Match

Reggae Boyz has earn their first point in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying against Costa Rica in San Jose, Costa Rica. Jamaica without their English based players they went to Costa Rica coming off a 3-0 defeat to Panama in Kingston, Jamaica to secure the draw. The Boyz went down 1-0 in the 3rd minute of the first half courtesy of Jimmy Marin, when Byran Ruiz whipped a cross to back post for Marin to head home pass Andre Blake. At the start of the second half the Boyz came out with a different tempo, with Tyreek Magee imposing himself on the game. Magee getting is first start of the Qualifiers made a beautiful turn in the middle of the pitch to beat his defender, dribbled 30yards to find Kemar Lawrence on the right side, who whipped a beautiful cross for Shamar Nicholson to head home, scoring is second goal in two games for Jamaica to tie the game. Jamaica continued to find their feet and a few more chances came their way in Junior Flemming and Shamar Nicholson, who got a shot on goal in the 86th minute which could have won the game. Overall the Boyz made a better account of themselves to earn the point on the road, with starting line-up of Andre Blake in goal, Damion Lowe and Adrian Mariappa paired in the center-back positions, Kemar Lawrence and Alvas Powell left-back, right-back respectively. The duo of Anthony “The Judge” Grant and Devon “Speedy” Williams as we saw in the Mexico game, was deployed in the middle of the park, with an exceptional game from the pair. Junior Flemming, Tyreek Magee, Cory Burke and Shamar Nicholson was the attacking force.

Jamaica still sits at the bottom of the table with 1 point, sitting in a similar situation of the 1998 Road to France World Cup where Jamaica qualified for their first World Cup appearance, and only participation. In 1998 after the first 5 games Jamaica had only 2 points, but they put some good games together to make the 1998 World Cup Finals. With this performance against Costa Rica earning the point on the road, the Reggae Boyz could take some positives going in to the next World Cup Qualifying window in October. Reggae Boyz schedule for October holds United States in Texas October 7th, Jamaica host Canada on the 10th and travels to Honduras on the 13th. Gaining some more points in this window is of exceptional importance.

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