MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — Jamaica’s national football team head coach Theodore Whitmore left the Jose Maria Minella Stadium here on Wednesday night just as pleased as his Argentine counterpart Diego Maradona, but for different reasons.

While the former all-time great player ended the game possibly saving his job following two late strikes from Martin Palermo (84th) and Ignacio Canuto (90th+) to rally his team to a 2-1 victory, Whitmore — whose team led from within seconds of the restart, thanks to Ryan Johnson’s first goal for Jamaica — was left licking his lips of the prospects of a bright future.

“I think it was a good performance overall from the team and it gave us as coaches a platform to work with,” beamed the head coach at game’s end.

The Jamaicans, clad in their regular yellow shirts and black shorts, played compact behind the ball in the first half and tried to hit the slick passing and highly skilled Argentines on the counter-attack. That the tactic worked perfectly for the entire first half as they reduced the home team in their dark blue shirts and white shorts to very few chances at goal.

The closest the Argentines got to a sight of goal in that period was in the 20th minute when captain and the very experienced Palermo just failed to make contact with a teasing right sided cross from Patricio Toranzo during a period when the home team bossed the game.

But 10 minutes from the break, Johnson broke away down the left hand side of the pitch and raced towards goal only to be denied by a combination of defenders late on in the box as he claimed a penalty.

That was a warning sign for Maradona’s boys, but they failed to react and immediately on the resumption, Johnson, unmarked between two defenders, soared high to direct a clean header in the goal off the left upright, silencing the capacity home crowd on a night when the city of Mar del Plata was celebrating its 136th year.

The Boyz held the lead and moved to within six minutes of a famous victory against the two-time World Cup champions, and more than likely the axing of Maradona as coach, before the game turned on its head.

“To be honest, it didn’t really matter which way the game was going, whether we were trailing or leading, we just wanted to try and give everybody their chance because we are building for the next World Cup. At some point in time, we as the coaching staff are going to have a cut-off point to say we have seen enough of some people. That was the plan, to continue to expose players,” Whitmore said.

He added: “I believe in this team and it wasn’t a case of win or lose, though as long as I’m the national coach every game that I play I want to win, it doesn’t matter the opponents, but our main focus is on how well the team performs because that gives us a chance to see where we are and where we need to be.”

Whitmore, the two-goal hero at the France 1998 World Cup Finals, himself suffered a massive 5-0 drubbing by Argentina in that edition of the World Cup, expressed joy with Johnson’s goal at the it came, but he thought the team needed fresh legs to counter the then desperate Argentines who were chasing the game.

In addition, the coach said he didn’t want to repeat the mistakes made in the previous game against Canada when he used players who were not in their football season.

“That was a plus for us tonight (Wednesday), our local players did well and it’s an experience for them too to know how to play against a big team in a stadium with 35,000 people. We had the Argentine supporters quiet for 85 minutes.

“After going ahead, we tried to tie the midfield and force them to go wide because I think we have capable players inside to deal with the crosses, though we had a few errors from Miller (Dwayne, the goalkeeper), but that’s football and I see positive signs going forward,” said Whitmore.

Early in the second half, Frederico Insua tested Miller with a rasping shot which the Harbour View custodian parried behind for one of the home team’s 16 corner kicks on the night.

But at the other end, Johnson, who became increasingly more confident, won headers which forced goalkeeper Nelson Ibanez to make saves, but the pressure was building on the Jamaican defensive end, especially after Lovel Palmer and Navion Boyd were replaced, and captain Shavar Thomas was forced to make desperate tackles to deny the equalising goal, especially after Miller kept missing crosses.

Nine minutes from time, Argentina’s left back Luciano Monzon got behind the Jamaican defence and whipped in a teasing grounded cross which ricocheted off the shin of a surprised Gaiton four yards from goal.

Jamaica didn’t heed the warning and Palermo, as he’s known to do time and again, possibly sealed his World Cup ticket by nodding home from the edge of the penalty area, the ball bouncing over the outstretched arms of a diving Miller.

With the decibel levels reaching great heights, Argentina turned up the pressure and only hurried and desperate clearances by the defenders saved Miller’s blushes as he missed a few crosses in his box.

But in the fourth minute of time added, the active assistant referee gifted Argentina possession of the ball in the vicinity of the corner flag when he called a dubious foul against Jermaine Taylor.

From the resulting free kick, Miller missed two clearances from either side and Canuto, introduced only four minutes earlier, took his second opportunity to ram home after his first shot was block by a combination of Thomas and Taylor, to seal victory and possibly Maradona’s job.

“… I also think that the players need to understand that a football game lasts for more than 90 minutes because the last five minutes of the game we came up short,” noted Whitmore, who was otherwise pleased with how the team executed the game plan.

“Every area tonight we showed what we wanted to do, sticking to the game plan, we were compact, kept our shape and I think Austin and Edwards in midfield did well, so I was pleased. The compactness of the team was excellent, but in transition from the back sometimes I thought we sat back a little too much on goalkeeper Miller, which we didn’t want.

“Our game plan was to basically catch them on the counter because we know the sort of opponents that we were up against and it worked up to 85 minutes,” ended Whitmore.

Teams: Jamaica — Dwayne Miller, Shavar Thomas, Jermaine Taylor, Adrian Reid, Lovel Palmer (Dane Richards 65th), Navion Boyd (Demar Stewart 64th), Rodolph Austin, Richard Edwards, Omar Cummings (Jason Johnson 90th), Keammar Daley (Jevaughn Watson 70th), Ryan Johnson (Devon Hodges 86th).

Subs not used: DuWayne Kerr, Dicoy Williams.

Booked: Edwards (39th), Reid (78th).

Argentina — Nelson Ibanez, Mariano Echeverria (Matias Caruzzo 72nd), Luciano Monzon, Gabriel Mercado (Ignacio Canuto 90th), Juan Mercier, Leonel Galeano (Nicolas Gaitan 55th), Patricio Toranzo, Walter Acevedo (Jesus Mendez 61st), Martin Palermo, Federico Indua, Franco Jara (Gabriel Hauche 46th).

Subs not used: Cristian Campestrini

Booked: Mercado (60th)

Referee: Victor Chevez (Peru)

Assistants: Winston Vela, Cesar Zambrano (Peru)

Fourth Official: Diego Abal (Peru)