The Reggae Boyz’s dream of making it to the FIFA World Cup Finals in Brazil next summer slipped farther away from reality following their 1-2 loss to the United States of America at the National Stadium in Kingston Friday night.

Jozy Altidore put the victors ahead in the 30th minute and after substitute Jermaine Beckford pulled the Reggae Boyz level a minute from regulation time, Bradley Evans capitalised on Michael Bradley’s feed two minutes into time added, to slam home from close range and steal victory for the Americans, while almost certain to condemn the Boyz to elimination.

The result propelled the USA to a three-way tie atop the six-nation CONCACAF final phase with seven points, alongside Costa Rica and Mexico. Panama inched up to six points, while Honduras remain on four points and Jamaica rooted at the bottom on two points.

Panama became the third team to come away from the Azteca with a 0-0 result, Costa Rica edged Honduras 1-0 at home.

The Reggae Boyz departed the island yesterday for Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where they will remain for two days before journeying on to Honduras tomorrow ahead of Tuesday’s encounter.

Reacting to Friday night’s heartbreaking defeat, head coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore and his players were a picture of dejection.

“This is football. This is a tough loss, believe me. I think we deserve, if not all three points, a point out of the game. As I said, it’s football,” Whitmore said.

He added: “I am very disappointed that we lost another game… we just have to stay focused and positive”.

The former Jamaica captain was forced to explain the reason why the oustanding Jermaine ‘Teddy’ Johnson was withdrawn with over 20 minutes to play.

Whitmore said Johnson was suffering from “back pain and tight hamstring”. “He asked to be substituted,” the coach explained.

The France 1998 World Cup hero lamented Jamaica’s missed chances to score more goals. “We created a lot of chances but didn’t put them away. If you look at the US team, they got like one-and-a half chances and put them away and that’s the difference in international football,” noted Whitmore.

As daunting as Jamaica’s situation looks, the Jamaican coach says “we just have to keep fighting”.

“We just have to continue to believe. I personally believe in the group regardless of what,” said Whitmore, who was a part of the Jamaican team that had two points from their first four games in the 1998 successful campaign.

The Americans started the better team and within two minutes Roma’s roving midfielder Bradley thumped a right-footed volley against the inside of Donovan Ricketts’ right hand upright and across the face of

the goal.

Shortly after Fabian Johnson cut inside his marker Alvas Powell from the left before driving a grounder which Ricketts had to go low to save.

Gradually the Reggae Boyz found their rhythm with Harbour View’s midfield maestro Jermaine Hue getting on the ball more often and connecting with passes forward. ‘Teddy’ Johnson took inspiration from the Harbour View man and before 20 minutes had elapsed he dismissed Bradley with a deft play centre of goal and rifled a torrid shot, which goalkeeper Tim Howard could only parry. The Sheffield Wednesday player then went on a mazy dribble from the middle of the pitch to the right flank and into the penalty area, but his cross was over hit.

Then as fate would have it the visitors made a telling strike.

Graham Zusi tricked his way past O’Brian Woodbine on the right and centred on the six-yard box for Altidore to head home unchallenged.

But the Boyz didn’t lose faith and they hit back hard, without showing anything for their efforts. Hue, Rodolph Austin and Ryan Johnson combined well with cheeky passes around the penalty area and it ended with Johnson relaying a neat pass behind the defence for Austin, but his right-footed poke slammed against the upright and back into play.

Hue then showed his class with a sublime cross field pass to Jermaine Johnson behind the unbalanced defence wide inside the penalty area, but the latter blasted his volley high.

The game evened out into a midfield battle in the second half with Jamaica restricted to long-range shots, and the occasional burst by Jermaine Johnson, who ran the US defence ragged.

Tomorrow, Costa Rica visit the Azteca to face Mexico at 7:00 pm; Honduras welcome Jamaica at the Tiburcio Carias Olympic Stadium in Tegucigalpa at 8:00 pm, and the USA host Panama at the CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington at 9:08 pm.

Teams: Jamaica — (1) Donovan Ricketts (captain), (2) Daniel Gordon, (19) Adrian Mariappa, (3) O’Brian Woodbine, (5) Alvas Powell, (4) Marvin Elliott, (17) Rodolph Austin, (8) Jermaine Johnson (14 Theo Robinson 67th), (22) Garath McCleary (16 Omar Daley 75th), (18) Jermaine Hue (7 Jermaine Beckford 70th), (9) Ryan Johnson.

Subs not used: (13) Dwayne Miller (GK), (23) Andre Blake (GK), (21)Adrian Reid, (6) Montrose Phinn, (12) Evan Taylor, (21) Damion Williams, (15) Je-Vaughn Watson, (11) Darren Mattocks, (10) Keammar Daley, (20) Jermie Lynch

Booked: None

USA — (1) Tim Howard (GK), (3) Omar Gonzalez, (5) Matt Besler, (7) DeMarcus Beasley, (6) Brad Evans, (4) Michael Bradley, (13) Jermaine Jones (20 Geoffrey Cameron 59

th), (23) Fabian Johnson (2 Edgar Castillo 76th), (19) Graham Zusi, (8) Clint Dempsey, (17) Jozy Altidore (18 Eddie Johnson 83rd)

Subs not used: (22) Talmon Hall (GK), (12) Bradley Guzman (GK), (9) Terrence Boyd, (10) Joe Corona, (11) Stuart Holden, (14) Bradley Davis, (15) Michael Parkhurst, (16) Sacha Kljestan, (21) Clarence Goodson

Booked: Zusi (88th), Evans (90th+2)

Referee: Roberto Moreno (Panama)

Assistant Referee 1: Keytzel Corrales (Nicaragua)

Assistant Referee 2: Daniel Williamson (Panama)

Fourth Official: Jhon Pitti (Panama)