PANAMA City, Panama — National youth coach Wendell Downswell said lack of experience cost his team a place in the 2013 FIFA Under-17 World Cup to be staged in the United Arab Emirates.

The Jamaicans led twice against Canada on Saturday — including a 2-1 half-time advantage — before a dramatic second-half defensive meltdown saw the Young Boyz conceding three goals inside the final 30 minutes to lose 2-4 at the quarter-final stage of the CONCACAF Under-17 tournament.

When the dust settled, Canada were through to the semi-final and had automatically sealed their berth to the youth football showpiece in Asia, while Downswell was left searching for the missing pieces to the qualification puzzle.

He identified the team’s pre-tournament preparation — which was limited, due to the Jamaica Football Federation’s (JFF) budgetary constraints, to matches against mostly sub-par local club teams, as being inadequate.

According to Downswell, the tournament build-up contrasted with the successful World Cup qualifying campaign two years ago when Jamaica had an extensive camp in Brazil, which yielded no less than 20 practice matches against good opposition on high-quality playing surfaces.

“We are extremely disappointed that we could not (qualify)… we were hoping that we could have been part of history by qualifying. We led on two occasions and I think we were let down defensively. At this level, the immaturity of these players came to the fore.

“If you look at these youngsters, they don’t play that level of regular competitive football against quality opposition over an extended period of time. Compare that to the North American and Central American teams… most of those players are young professionals.

“Yes, we practised a lot at home, but local football and international football is like night and day, and it was quite evident here and I will continue to echo that sentiment… we tried with what we had, but it comes down to the level of international exposure,” Downswell said.

The Young Reggae Boyz, who finished second in Group A with two points in as many matches, started the competition solidly enough, after battling to a 1-1 result with hosts Panama, though being reduced to nine players before the final whistle.

Then they were hailed by the technical staff for showing “tactical awareness”.

Two days later, however, Jamaica disappointingly collapsed to a 2-2 result against Caribbean rivals Barbados in a match that exposed some indiscipline across the back four.

Saturday’s debacle versus Canada only compounded that sore point. Add to that the number of goals which were conceded throughout all three games after goalkeeper Nicholas Nelson made spectacular saves, or the goal frame came to his rescue.

Central midfielder Ryan Miller, who was handed a two-match suspension after being red-carded in the Panama game, was an obvious missing link in the organisation of the team.

Nevertheless, the squad was highly regarded as a very deep one heading into the tournament.

So why the defensive collapse?

Those who saw the practice sessions in Panama could never argue that Downswell and his long-time assistant Omar Edwards overlooked the defensive aspect. Certainly not with all those routines which were witnessed session after session.

Downswell puts it down to players cracking under “pressure situations”.

“We did the work in training and we went through the videos (replays) and we worked with them, but somehow when the pressure situation arose they didn’t respond.

“Playing in a tournament of this magnitude and having scored five goals, but conceding seven goals, was really disappointing. We also conceded three in identical manner (against Canada)… by virtue of rebounds and balls hitting the post

“Had we played at least six to eight of these (international practice) games we could have identified these weaknesses and these sorts of mistakes. You have to look at it from the perspective that we were really experimenting and learning during the (CONCACAF) tournament itself,” he reasoned.

Still, the question lingered as to why crash and burn against Barbados and then Canada, but not against the hugely talented Panamanians, though Jamaica were reduced to 10 players for much of the second period.

Downswell returned to the topic of having a professional mindset and suggested that, at the start of the tournament, the players appeared to be at their best, psychologically.

“Perhaps because we were fresh coming into the tournament and our concentration levels… we maintained that for a good period of time during that (opening) match.

“To concentrate on a regular basis and consistently is not an easy task for them. This is something new for them and we have to take into consideration that they are 15 and 16-year-olds. Yes, other teams are the same age group, but if you look at the years they’ve spent getting professional training and playing top level games it means they will make better tactical decisions,” Downswell said.