BY SEAN A WILLIAMS Assistant Sport editor
Saturday, October 11, 2014
NIIGATA, Japan — Jamaica head coach Winfried Schaefer was clearly a relieved man after the final whistle of the friendly international against Japan at a sold-out Denka Big Swan Stadium yesterday.
He feared, like many others, that his weary Reggae Boyz, who had little time to prepare for their match against the hosts, would have been over-run by a superior opponent who had three training sessions ahead of the match, compared to Jamaica‘s 60 minutes on the training pitch.
A Japanese demolition of Jamaica didn’t happen. At least the scoreline sure does not suggest it.
Credit must be paid, however, to Jamaican goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, who was brilliant between the sticks to prevent the forecast deluge. And though they never clicked as a unit, Leicester City captain Wes Morgan was outstanding in a three-man defence completed by Bristol City’s Nyron Nosworthy and Houston Dynamo’s Jermaine Taylor.
The Boyz may have lost the match 0-1 to the 48th-ranked Japanese, but despite their bombardment of the Jamaican goal, the teams were crucially separated by Nosworthy’s own goal in the 16th minute.
Before the kick-off, Schaefer had sounded his battle cry. On a board in the team’s meeting room the German’s message to his players read: “Give your heart or go home.”
And Schaefer is happy that his players, under difficult circumstances, gave it their best.
“What was more important is the heart of the players and I was happy for the mentality of the players…the Japanese journalists say that when you take into consideration that we were on the plane for 20 hours, with three stops, had only 60 minutes to train, the result is good,” Schaefer told the Jamaica Observer.
“The newspapers in Japan are not happy as they say their team only defeated Jamaica by 1-0 and they are ranked so highly, so I see this as a compliment from Japan to us,” said the German.
He said he was particularly impressed with the attacking fervour late on in the contest, a good sign of things, he claims, to work on ahead of the Caribbean Cup to be hosted by Jamaica in Montego Bay November 10-18.
“You see we made a good pressing in the second half and could have got a penalty, so if we get more time we can work on these things,” he said.
“In midfield we lost the ball here and we lost the ball there, but that’s not a problem, as we can change that, and we will have time in Montego Bay, as I have told Captain (Horace Burrell) that I want our MLS players in training camp by the 28th of October and my local players by next week for fitness training,” said Schaefer, buoyed by the gutsy rendition.
In Jamaica‘s sloppy start to the contest on a cool Niigata night where temperatures dipped into the low 50s and had the stadium bursting at its seams, Jamaica had an anxious moment in the first minute of play when Kemar Lawrence’s miscued back pass found a Japanese lurking close to his danger area, but to his credit, the Harbour View leftback recovered quickly to mop up.
Jamaica goalkeeper Thompson was forced to leap to his left in the sixth minute to keep out AC Milan Keisuke Honda’s 20-yard freekick that crept over the wall.
As was expected and typical of the Japanese game, the many-time Asian champions kept the Jamaicans away from the ball with their slick inter-passing game. The Boyz, pushed back by the Japanese marauders, defended stoutly, but not always clinically.
Japan’s Shinji Kagawa of Borussia Dortmund tested Thompson from distance with a 30-yard scorcher in minute 15, but the Tampa Bay Rowdies goalkeeper responded with a spectacular save.
And with the raids coming fast and furious, a 16th minute Japan blitz led by Honda and Kagawa, opened up the Jamaican defence and the move had goal written all over it. But it was not a Japanese boot that got the job done, but heartbreakingly for a recovering Nosworthy, his foot was in the wrong place and the ball was in the net.
Jamaica could have easily conceded a second goal in the 33rd minute after a series of poor passing in getting the ball out of their defensive third, which ended with the ball falling for a lurking Honda. Luckily for the Boyz, the Japanese’s disdainful lofted ball lacked the perfect measure and went high.
The arrogance of the Blue Sumurai grew with every passing minute, clearly making the point that their respect for Jamaica has long gone since Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore hit a sublime brace to beat the Japanese 2-1 at the France World Cup in 1998.
In one of their showboating moments in the 39th minute, Shinji Okazaki felt confident enough to execute a training ground overhead kick, even as he was surrounded by a throng of beaten back Jamaican defenders.
The FSV Mainz striker was reacting to an earlier low shot from teammate Gotoku Sakai, which bubbled up for Okazaki to go for grandeur, but the shot flew marginally over the crossbar.
Five minutes into the restart, Okazaki again went for the spectacular as he met a ball played across the Jamaican goal with a scissors kick, but again the target was not where he would have preferred it to be.
As Jamaica‘s defence struggled to keep pace with the Japanese attackers, Thompson was once more called upon in a major way in the 58th minute when he had to block a point-blank shot from Gaku Shibazaki.
Two minutes later, Thompson was called back into action, plucking Yoshinori Muto’s back post header out of the goal.
Jamaica had a rare glimpse at goal when captain and defender Morgan rose imposingly at the back post to meet Lawrence’s corner, but the Leicester City ace could not manage to guide home, restricted by two close-marking opposing defenders.
In the 70th minute, Alvas Powell of Portland Timbers, who switched from the right side to a more central midfield position, fancied a go at goal himself when he surged into space on his drive forward, but his final shot was tame.
Darren Mattocks of the Vancouver Whitecaps, who was quiet for the most part since coming on as a half-time sub, burst into the area in minute 77 in what appeared a one-on-one with Japanese goalkeeper Shusako Nishikawa, but a fast-tracking defender rammed the Jamaican with his shoulder, sending him to ground before he could pull the trigger.
There was a loud appeal for penalty from the Jamaican bench, but the Chinese referee Ning Na looked the other way.
Jamaica looked more promising on the attacking front since Powell was pushed into midfield — the former Paul Bogle High student adding muscle and daring to the effort.
While Japan is Jamaica‘s final warm-up match ahead of the Caribbean Cup, the Asians’ next assignment is a friendly against five-time World Cup champions Brazil in Singapore next Tuesday.
Pressure is on Jamaica to win the Caribbean Cup at home, a victory that would see them earn automatic berths to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2015 and the CONMEBOL Copa America Centennial Cup in 2016.
Already, the Boyz have been invited as a guest team to participate in the Copa America in 2015 in Chile.
Teams: Japan — Shusako Nishikawa, Yoto Nagatomo (Kosuke Ota 88th), Tsukasa Shiotani, Gotuko Sakan, Hajime Hosogai, Masato Morishige, Shinji Kagawa (Taishi Taguchi 89th), Gaku Shibasaki, Shinji Okazaki (Yu Kobayashi 58th), Keisuke Honda and Yoshinori Muto (Yoichiro Kakitani 73rd).
Subs not used: Eiji Kawashima, Shuichi Gonda, Hiroki Mizumoto, Daigo Nishi, Daisuke Suzuki, Junya Tanaka, Tyota Morioka, Mike Havenaar.
Booked: None
Jamaica — Ryan Thompson, Westley Morgan, Nyron Nosworthy, Alvas Powell, Kemar Lawrence, Nicholy Finlayson (Hughan Gray 64th), Jermaine Taylor, Joel Grant (Cardel Benbow 74th), Je-Vaughn Watson, Jamar Loza (Michael Seaton 45th) and Dane Richards (Darren Mattocks 45th).
Subs not used: Dwayne Miller, Upston Edwards, Deshorn Brown.
Booked: Morgan (5th), Loza (25th), Watson (76th)
Referee: Ning Ma (China)
Assistant Referees: Dexin Wang, Shi Xiang (China)
Fourth Official: Hiroyuki Kimura (Japan)
Match Commissioner: Hiroshi Kagayama (Japan)
View the original article here
Boyz suffer loss on own goal by Nosworthy
