Barrett: Can’t let Guadeloupe loss define us

National under-17 defender Ronaldo Barrett says that his team cannot afford their spirits to drop despite losing 2-1 to Guadeloupe in their second group game of the Under-17 Concacaf Championship yesterday evening at the Estadio Mateo Flores Stadium.

While Barrett opened the scoring with a blistering drive outside the penalty area in the 41st minute, two late goals from Willian Jacques in the 77th minute and Ylan Moloza in the 89th minute overturned the deficit. Jamaica were forced to play with 10 players for the majority of the second half when Nashorn Bolt-Barrett was sent off for a second yellow card in the 52nd minute.

The brilliance of Barrett's drive was overshadowed by the events of the second half as Jamaica were unable to fend off Guadeloupe, seeing a possible win and then point, evaporate much to his disappointment.

"I scored but we didn't get the result that we were expecting," Barrett said after the game.

Jamaica had started well enough in the first half putting early pressure on their opponents. Barrett said that while there were not many differences in the way they played in their 4-2 opening win against Cuba, he acknowledged how crucial the red card played a fact in the defeat

"There wasn't much difference other than the fact that we got a red card. We just had to go and press on," Barrett said. Jamaica now require a result against Costa Rica tomorrow at 8 p.m. to secure qualification to the second round and maintain their hopes for a berth in the Under-17 World Cup later this month. Barrett was adamant that they have to recover from this quickly and respond with the right mentality to get the desired result.

"All we need to do is to go back to the training pitch and work hard. We cannot let this game define us," Barrett said.