TORONTO, Canada, CMC – Jamaica head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson was filled with reward for his aspect after their comeback 3-2 win towards hosts Canada of their closing Concacaf Nations League group match on Tuesday.
Shamar Nicholson was the hero for the Jamaicans, scoring a second-half brace. The Reggae Boyz logged their first win on Canadian soil within the second leg of their League A quarterfinal at BMO Area to e book their place within the semi-finals and as a visitor crew within the prestigious Copa America, the South American championship, to be staged from June 20 to July 14 subsequent 12 months in the USA.
Jamaica tied the two-legged quarterfinal sequence towards the Canadians 4-4 on mixture and earned their place within the closing 4, together with Panama, Mexico, and hosts United States, on the away-goal, tie-breaker rule.
“After the World Cup, the Copa America is on the identical scale because the Euros by way of high quality of groups which are there, the standard of the people taking part in,” Hallgrimsson stated throughout a post-match information convention.
“For Jamaica, and particularly the [Jamaica Football] Federation (JFF), it’s large. I’m simply placing into perspective [that] this was in all probability a very powerful sport for Jamaica in a very long time.”
He added: “While you’re constructing a crew, and you’ll play a match like Copa America, it helps lots within the improvement as a result of that’s the one time a coach can spend with the gamers [for] a month or month-and-a-half.
“While you add one other match, the semi-final, and hopefully a closing of the Nations League, it permits us to be collectively for much longer than a brief Fifa break, particularly in Jamaica when gamers all the time come a day or two late due to distance … It offers us an opportunity to develop as a crew. The largest factor is monetary for the JFF, which doesn’t have a lot cash, so it’s an enormous factor in some ways.”
On the turnaround in fortunes within the match, Hallgrimsson put it down to some senior gamers, motivating the others to push more durable.
“There was nothing to lose,” he stated. “We wanted two targets earlier than beginning the kick-off, and we nonetheless wanted two targets not less than at half-time, and I’ve to offer credit score to the gamers as a result of they rallied up at half-time. It was all or nothing, they usually went in with that perspective.
“They determined to go like this, gung-ho, and simply press towards them, and it labored. Typically it really works, typically it doesn’t. However (on this match) it labored, nevertheless it was all of the gamers.”
The Boyz will face the Individuals within the semi-finals on March 21 subsequent 12 months, the identical day Panama meets Concacaf giants Mexico within the different semi.
Each matches might be performed on the world-renowned AT&T Stadium, dwelling to the Dallas Cowboys, within the American metropolis of Arlington in Texas, which may even host the match closing three days later.
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