Young Reggae Boyz continue romp

Jamaica’s young Reggae Boyz continued their romp toward qualification for the Concacaf U20 Championship with an 8-0 victory over St Kitts and Nevis at the Stadion Rignaal ‘Jean’ Francisca in Willemstad, Curaçao yesterday.

The win keeps the Jamaicans atop Group B of the Concacaf U20 Qualifiers with 12 points. Puerto Rico, who beat the Cayman Islands 2-0 in an earlier game, follow the Jamaicans closely with the same number of points but with a much inferior goal difference. In the only other game played yesterday, already eliminated Bonaire got the better of Turks and Caicos Islands 2-1.

The Jamaicans will now turn their attention to Puerto Rico in the final game of the group stage on Tuesday at the same venue.

The young Reggae Boyz only need a draw from the encounter.

Yesterday, the Jamaicans got goals from Sean Leighton in the 10th and 60th minutes, Jabarie Howell in the 12th, Jahmarie Nolan in the 32nd, Raequan Campbell-Dennis in the 53rd, Jamoy Dennis 67th and 90th+3, as well as Orel Miller in the 71st.

It was expected that Jamaica would have started the faster of the two and while they did have the better of play, St Kitts did not look overawed.

Still, the young Reggae Boyz could have taken the lead on a number of occasions in the first five minutes but dangerous crosses never found their targets.

One of those crosses came in the 10th minute and a desperate stab away for the game’s first corner resulted in the opening goal for Leighton.

Recipient of a short corner, Claver Nugent cut back and delivered an inswinging effort that fell right in the path of Leighton to guide home.

Two minutes later Howell benefitted from a bad pass Owen Jumpp intercepted. Howell was then played through on goal and slipped it beneath onrushing goalkeeper, Ash-On Maynad.

At 2-0, the game was not put to bed and St Kitts made the instability of the lead clear in the 22nd minute, when a nice bit of interplay among three players resulted in Akanye Samuels-Harris forcing a double-save from Joshua Grant. Those glimpses of quality showed up sporadically throughout the 90.

In the 31st minute, Campbell-Dennis played Nolan through. The player, who now has five goals in four games, showed good composure to drag the ball around Maynard, who could only bring him down.

Nolan got up, brushed himself off, and slid his penalty firmly into the right bottom corner of the goal.

The Concacaf U20 Championship will be used for qualification to the 2027 U20 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.