Boyz will definitely do better, vows Austin
MONTEGO BAY, St James — Captain Rodolph Austin says as a team Jamaica must dust themselves off and move on from their unfavourable 1-1 draw against French-speaking Martinique in their opening Group B match of the 2014 CFU Caribbean Cup at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on Wednesday night.
Hometown favourites Jamaica were hoping to kick-start their campaign with a bang, but a technically good and disciplined Martinique team showed up for business and threw the wrench into any plans the Reggae Boyz had of victory.
“We have to move on as that’s the only way we are going to win the tournament. I agree, the performance tonight (Wednesday) was not good enough and we have to realise that, but we must give credit to Martinique,” said Austin.
Austin, 29, said in a post-match press conference that it was the responsibility of the players, himself included, to go out on the field today against Antigua and Barbuda and get the victory, which would put the Boyz back on track.
“As I have said before, we are a team and we are the ones who have to go out there and play, so we will have to go out there and fix the problem and that’s our responsibility,” he said.
While Jamaica enjoyed good possession throughout the game and offered some threat in the attacking third, they never appeared on the same wave length as an offensive unit.
Some players preferred to go for glory for themselves, or others have been hasty in releasing the ball and at times showed indecisiveness in the business area.
“I think that there were certain times in the game when we should have just kept the ball and to just take this team out of the game… I think we tried to go for too many risky passes, myself included.
“But we will talk and the team will definitely do better in the next game,” Austin vowed.
The Leeds United man, in one of his bright moments, had a thunderous 25-yard free-kick crashing into the chest of Martinique goalleeeper Kevin Olimpa and rebounding for Jamaica goal-scorer Darren Mattocks to stab home, but the final move was ruled off-side.
Jamaica will next face Antigua and Barbuda today in the feature of a double-header at 8:00 pm, while Martinique and Haiti do battle in the curtain-raiser at 5:30 pm.