JAMAICA lost their second game in a row at the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship when they were defeated 2-1 on penalties by Costa Rica in Nassau, Bahamas, yesterday.

Both teams had played to a 3-3 scoreline in regulation time and had to resort to penalty kicks as a tie-breaker as each game must produce a winner.

Jermaine Anderson, who had scored in freeflowing play, missed his penalty shot after his teammate Phillip Peddie had got Jamaica off the mark. Costa Rica’s successful spotkicks were delivered by Greivin Pacheco and Mendoza.

Jamaica had lost their opening match of three-team Group C 7-2 to El Salvador. Both Central American teams will meet today to decide the group champions.

In another result yesterday, the United States whipped Puerto Rico 5-0 in Group A, while the other teams in group hosts Bahamas and Guatemala were due for an evening showdown.

In Group B, Mexico and Trinidad & Tobago had scheduled a date in a late encounter yesterday

In matches today, Guatemala will face Puerto Rico and Bahamas take on United States in Goup A showdowns; Group B’s Canada and Trinidad & Tobago will clash; El Salvador and Costa Rica of Group C will do battle.

After the above fixture, the second-placed team in Group B will tackle third-placed team of the same group, while the same applies to Jamaica’s Group C

The top two teams at the end of the five-day play-offs will represent CONCACAF at the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup at the To’ata Stadium in Papeete, Tahiti, from September 18-28.

A total of 16 countries will participate.

The FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers (CONCACAF), more commonly known as the CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, is the main tournament for beach soccer in North America, Central America, and the Caribbean.

In both 2005 and 2007, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held joint championships. In 2007, the successful teams of the competition qualified to play in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, whereas the 2005 tournament was unattached from the World Cup. This was not the way teams qualified for the 2005 World Cup.

In 2006, when FIFA introduced the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifiers, the championship became the way to qualify for the World Cup, so CONCACAF and CONMEBOL held two separate championships.

From 2008 onwards, due to the number of teams from each confederation trying to qualify, CONCACAF and CONMEBOL have decided to always have separate championships.

Now that the World Cup takes place every two years, so will the qualifiers, starting with the qualifiers for the 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.

Russia are the defending 2011 FIFA Beach Soccer champions.