Two recognised thinkers of local football have both showered praise on the players, technical and medial teams for a job well done in Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz’s historic 0-0 draw with host Mexico at the Azteca Stadium on Wednesday night.

In a professional and tactically astute delivery, the Boyz beat back great odds that gave them no chance of leaving the feared high altitude of Mexico City with anything in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying clash. But their one point, the first ever in the celebrated stadium, will be the most cherished ever.

The spoils could have been greater had the brave Jamaicans converted their chances, the most striking being a close-up miss by Reading FC captain Jobi McAnuff in the eighth minute of play.

But that will quickly be forgotten no doubt as reflections on the encounter will seek to applaud the sublime overall effort that made a strong statement that Jamaica’s push for Brazil 2014 is indeed no fluke.

Football analyst, Clyde Jureidini, believes the rendition is deserving of every praise when weighed against history and multiple difficulties with Mexico City’s daunting altitude of 2,240 metres (7,350 ft) and partisan fans who shower visitors with cold hospitality.

“We have to congratulate the team and in particular coach (Theodore) Whitmore and the rest of the technical staff as they seemed to have prepared tactically that allowed the unit to perform professionally in severely adverse conditions without any prior match preparation or familiarity to a great extent.

“To go into the much vaunted Azteca and to come up with a historic 0-0 point, but not only that we gained this point, but we didn’t concede a goal, a tremendous achievement,” said the general manager of the Harbour View Football Club.

Jureidini said the achievement is special for various reasons, including the fact that the players — some of whom were playing together for the first time — had little preparation or acclimatisation time.

“I think maybe it’s the first time we have gone there with so little time to prepare and with so many new players, so many of them Europe-based, so it would be interested to find out how different was the atmosphere and the weather as our overall performance at altitude was sustained for 90 minutes without any obvious adverse effects from our preparation and participation,” said the secretary of the Premier League Clubs Association.

Jureidini also applauded the decision of the technical staff to go for seasoned professionals for a game that was a difficult proposition long before the first ball was kicked.

“This squad must be the most senior squad I ever seen Jamaica assemble as the average age of the players were 29, with a lot of them in the group a,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The football aficionado is of the view that the “positive’ result will boost the Mission To Rio campaign in incalculable ways.

“It’s a definite shot in the arm for the entire programme, without hesitation I would say that 99 per cent of Jamaicans expected that side to lose and to lose heavily, and to come up with a stellar performance that corrected much of the tactical deployment that we did against the USA, is a major boost,” Jureidini ended

Allan ‘Skill’ Cole, former Jamaica international and the man widely regarded as Jamaica’s best player of all time, said the performance and historic element of the occasion ranks as one of Jamaica’s great footballing moments.

“All in all, I thought it was a great performance, unfortunately we didn’t come out with a victory, but still it will be a great moment in the annals of our football history,” he said.

Cole, who had a professional stint in Brazil in his heyday, singled out team doctor Carlton Fraser, whom he thought must have done an outstanding job to get the Boyz in a position to handle the effects of high altitude.

“I think Dr Fraser did a fantastic job because I don’t think it (effects of high altitude) showed on the players. I know of Dr Fraser’s ability in sports medicine so I am giving him a lot of the credit,” he said by telephone yesterday.

Cole believed the tactical approach and application of the players were spot on.

“Credit must go to the Boyz and also to the technical staff. The technical staff did a master job tactically, especially in the defensive work which helped us a lot,” he argued.

But Cole warned that the Jamaica Football Federation and its coaching team must devise ways to get the players more often together to build chemistry as the 10-match campaign wears on.

“Listen to me, performances like these do not happen very often in football, and when you look that the team didn’t have time and to gel, as we were more like a pick up side, and that’s more credit to the performance. But going forward we have to find ways to get the players together more often so we can build the chemistry,” he said.

Cole said he hopes that the Mexico feel-good vibes will carry over to the first home game on March 22.

“It (draw with Mexico) should be a morale booster, not only for the players, but also for the fans because… hopefully the result will also have a great impact on out first home game coming up next month, and hopefully we have a very good turn out,” he noted.