Jamaica and World Cup qualifying

AS JAMAICA prepares to tackle the United States in a crucial World Cup qualifier tonight at the National Stadium, The Gleaner takes a look at of Jamaica's qualifying campaign over the years.

The records will indicate that the football was introduced in Jamaica towards the end of the 19th century and in 1893 Jamaica's first football club was formed.

In 1925, Jamaica played their first international match against Haiti after which they were invited to the French-speaking island by Andre Chevalon for a three-match series. Jamaica won all three games, 1-0, 2-1 and 3-0.

But it would take Jamaica 40 years in 1965 to seriously attempt to qualify for a World Cup qualifying spot.

Jamaica's first quest was under the guidance of Brazilian coach Jorge Penna in an attempt to reach the 1966 World Cup in which the host country England defeated Germany to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy.

Jamaica were placed in a preliminary group that included Cuba and Nether-lands Antilles.

First qualifying game: Ja-maica's first qualifying game was a successful one against neighbours Cuba winning 2-0 at the National Stadium. The following match Jamaica dispatched the Netherlands Antilles 2-0 at home also.

HELD TO GOALLESS DRAW

The trend of struggling in away games started from Jamaica's first trip overseas. Jamaica after winning at home, were held to a goalless draw in the Netherland Antilles and lost 2-1 in Cuba but was still able to advance.

The final group of three comprised the mighty Mexico and Costa Rica from which the winner would represent the CONCACAF region in the World Cup.

Jamaica never got going, losing 3-2 at home to Mexico before being whipped 8-0 in the return leg in the high altitude of Mexico City. Jamaica also lost badly in Costa Rica, losing 7-0 before salvaging a point at home 1-1.

That was the end of the 1966 World Cup campaign for Jamaica.

The 1970 World Cup was held in Mexico and Jamaica under new local coach, George Thompson (George T), started their campaign in 1968. Jamaica had only a couple of new players from the last campaign after most of the players had migrated to North America and England.

Jamaica lost all of its qualifying games which were played in San Jose, Costa Rica and were eliminated in the first round.

Grouped with Costa Rica and Honduras, Jamaica lost 3-0 and 3-1 to hosts Costa Rica and 3-0 and 2-0 to Honduras.

PLAYERS SUSPENDED

The 1974 campaign to Ger-many never got started as 17 players were suspended for poor behaviour while touring Ber-muda. The football federation subsequently withdrew from the elimination in order to restructure their team.

The 1978 World Cup in Argentina saw Jamaica playing and losing 3-1 to Cuba at the National Stadium then being blanked 2-0 in the return leg in Havana, Cuba. That ended Jamaica's brief campaign.

In the 1982 Spain World Cup, Jamaica did not make an attempt to qualify due to insufficient funds and a poorly prepared team.

The following World Cup, held in Mexico in 1986, saw Jamaica not participating because it was suspended by FIFA the ruling body for affiliation fees that were due.

Under local coach, Jeffery Maxwell Jamaica got off to a winning start in the 1990 Italy World Cup qualifier against Puerto Rico. Jamaica won both games 1-0 in Jamaica and 2-0 in Puerto Rico. The United States were the next opponent and Jamaica played out a 0-0 draw at home. The return leg in the US saw Jamaica whipped 5-1 bringing to an end their qualifying campaign.

The U.S. hosted the 1994 World Cup and Jamaica once again played Puerto Rico in the first round beating them 2-1. Jamaica with Carl Brown as head coach, were then grouped with Bermuda, Canada and El Salvador from which two teams would advance to the final round. Jamaica drew 1-1 with Canada and Bermuda then rattled up consecutive loses of 2-0 to El Salvador, 1-0 to Canada, 2-1 to El Salvador again before squeezing out a 3-2 victory over Bermuda.

That was not enough to carry Jamaica to the next round.

The 1998 France World Cup saw Jamaica create history by becoming the first English-speaking Caribbean country to qualify for a World Cup.

? Howard Walker

Under Brazilian coach, Rene Simoes, the Jamaican team was voted the "Best Mover" by FIFA in 1996.

The qualifying stages for the 1998 World Cup in France began in March 1996, and by the end of the year, after playing ten games with identical 1-0 victories over Suriname. That was followed by 1-0 and 2-0 shut outs of Barbados then on to the next group which included Mexico, Honduras and St Vincent.

Jamaica by this stage had included an influx of English-based players to bolster the squad successfully. Deon Burton, Robbie Earle, Fitzroy Simpson, Paul Hall to name a few joined the likes of Walter Boyd, Paul Young, Theodore Whitmore, Onandi Lowe and Ian Goodison in creating history for Jamaica.

Victories over Honduras (3-0 at home), St Vincent (2-1 away) gave Jamaica a perfect start to the second round. This was followed by an away 2-1 loss to Mexico and 0-0 draw in Honduras before rebounding to thrash St Vincent 5-0 at home and edging Mexico 1-0 at the National Stadium to top the CONCACAF semi-final qualifying.

On to the final round of six where Jamaica were pitted against the US, regional kingpins Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

Dreams of reaching the World Cup were now becoming a reality as Jamaica began their quest with an impressive performance against the US but were unluckily held 0-0 at home after some near misses and a succession of penalty appeals were turned down.

The next three away matches saw Jamaica being thrashed 6-0 by Mexico, then drawing 0-0 in Canada then losing 3-1 to Costa Rica which seemed to have ruined the team's dreams.

An Andy Williams goal gave Jamaica a 1-0 victory over El Salvador at home to end the round with five points out of a possible 15.

The crucial return legs saw Jamaica going unbeaten with home wins over Canada and Costa Rica by 1-0 margins courtesy of Deon Burton. Then away to the US, Jamaica had a hard fought 1-1 and El Salvador 2-2 to set the stage for the final game against Mexico.

At that stage Jamaica had 13 points and only needed one point to qualify and that they did drawing 0-0 with Mexico at the National Stadium. One year after the campaign started, on November 17, Jamaica, now popularly known as the Reggae Boyz, finished third in the CONCACAF final round for the first time, earning a spot to the World Cup in France along with Mexico and the United States.

After that euphoria, Jamaica could not maintain the momentum and at the 2002 South Korea/Japan World Cup although starting well Jamaica by beating St Vincent, Honduras, El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago, they faded badly and never qualified under Brazilian coach Clovis de Oliveira.