Boyz look to avoid major hole in Costa Rica

The Reggae Boyz will be hoping to avoid three straight defeats to start their Concacaf 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign when they face Costa Rica tonight at 8 o'clock at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San Jose.

Jamaica currently sit at the bottom of the eight-team table with zero points from their first two games with back-to-back losses to Mexico on Thursday and Panama in their home opener on Sunday. However, Costa Rica while above Jamaica in seventh with a point, are also coming off a home defeat, on Sunday, losing 1-0 to leaders Mexico.

Jamaica does not have a good record against Costa Rica in San Jose, especially in World Cup qualifiers. Jamaica have lost all seven of their qualifying meetings in the Central American country, the most recent being in March 2016 when they lost 3-0. The Reggae Boyz have only won four times in 29 meetings against Los Tico, which include 11 draws and 14 defeats.

What will be concerning for the team is the inability to put together consistent passes and threaten in the opposition area. According to Flashscore.com, against Panama, Jamaica only attempted 337 passes and completed 251 a passing accuracy rate of 74 per cent. While this is an improvement from the Mexico game where they had only a 64 per cent accuracy rate the Mexico game was in the context of mounting a defensive effort that almost resulted in Jamaica getting a point. Head coach Theodore Whitmore lamented the fact that despite their best efforts they allowed the Panamanians to have control of the ball for the majority of the game. The Jamaican midfielders were outgunned for the entire first half and Whitmore was forced to replace British-based midfielders Bobby Reid and Ravel Morrison.

"The way we set up the (training) session (the day before) was not to sit deep, and I think that's what we did, we sat deep," Whitmore said after the game.

While lamenting his team's shocking display in the first half, he did say that the substitutions showed effort and commitment which gave them more joy.

"What we saw from those guys was the hunger and the desire. It was simply down to that, the hunger and the desire," Whitmore said.

Jamaica will have the same 23-man squad available for the Mexico game without the majority of the English-based contingent because of COVID-19 restrictions.