McClaren wants higher tempo

Heading into the second leg of the Concacaf Gold Cup Preliminary football tie against St Vincent and the Grenadines, Reggae Boyz head coach Steve McClaren will be looking for a higher tempo of play from his team.

McClaren was speaking at a pre-game interview yesterday ahead of today's matchup against St Vincent at Sabina Park.

Jamaica rallied to score in added time in a tense 1-1 draw against the Caribbean outfit last Thursday in the first leg, drawing criticism from the head coach for squandering chances.

"As I've said to the players, 75 per cent possession, 16 attempts at goal, seven on target normally win you that game. We have to replicate that again and the only thing we talked about is that the urgency and tempo needs to be higher. We need to attack quicker so the tempo just needs to be higher," he explained.

"When we went down, the urgency went up and the tempo increased so we need to keep that tempo against this opponent," McClaren continued. "We have to win, that's the mentality."

Speaking on the quality of the players on hand, McClaren said anything less than a win would be a disappointing result.

He warned, however, that St Vincent will not be an easy opponent to topple as they have proven their quality on the counter.

"I've got to say they didn't surprise me, I think they surprised the team but their speed in transition, they are a good team, they beat El Salvador and should have beaten them in the second game so we knew that they are difficult opponents but it's up to us to do the job."

The winner of the tie will advance to the Concacaf Gold Cup group stage, which is set to begin in June.

Jamaica enter the fixture with a slight advantage as the away goal rule is still in effect for Concacaf competitions.

The game starts at 7 p.m.

gregory.bryce@gleanerjm.com