COLUMBUS, Ohio — Head coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore said he was not surprised by the manner in which the USA approached the game against his team in their return-leg CONCACAF World Cup qualifying at Columbus Crew Stadium here on Tuesday night.

Following their historic 2-1 win over the Americans in Kingston on Friday in the first match, a desperate USA turned on the styles to outclass Jamaica for the most part, and were it not for outstanding goalkeeping by Dwayne Miller and stubborn defending, the Reggae Boyz could have suffered a humiliating defeat in front of a sold-out stadium.

Despite dominating the encounter with a slick passing, high-pressed game, the hungry hosts could only manage

to win the game 1-0 courtesy of a 55th-minute strike from Herculez Gomez.

“We were not surprised by the situation tonight (Tuesday)… I am just disappointed by the result,” said Whitmore after the game.

The Boyz head coach and the architect of Friday’s win over the North Americans, bemoaned the lack of resources, which he

claimed continue to put his team at a disadvantage.

“We have to take into consideration that what beat us tonight (Tuesday) was (a lack of) resources. When you look at the US team, they had a charter flight (in Kingston) and came back to Columbus and had a couple of training sessions,” said Whitmore, a star of Jamaica’s first-ever appearance at FIFA World Cup.

He suggested that the fact that the USA had a charter plane waiting for its players after the match in Kingston gave them a distinct edge as they could fly almost immediately and arrive

home to conduct a couple of training sessions.

Some of the Jamaicans, on the other hand, flew out of Kingston early Sunday morning and didn’t arrive in the Midwestern city until near midnight, which gave fatigued players only one training session on Monday, a day ahead of the high-stakes match-up.

“But we have to stay positive as we are still in the competition, and we can only hope that we can get this kind of resources and this kind of help to take us where we want to go,” Whitmore noted.

With a first half totally dominated by the hosts who tested Miller in a variety of ways and hitting the woodwork on at least three occasions, Jamaica only found their bearing in the final 30 minutes of the match.

“I think the US pushed us on our back foot in the

first half, and we didn’t start playing until we conceded,” Whitmore noted.

In one of few forward manoeuvres, defender Nyron Nosworthy galloped upfield using space available to him to get into USA territory then delivering a well-weighted pass to Omar Cummings, who tried to pick out an arriving

Ryan Johnson, but the latter was knocked over by an opposing defender.

Rodolph Austin, a scorer in Jamaica, pulled the trigger late from 25 yards, which forced USA goalkeeper Tim Howard to pull off a brilliant save to prevent the new Leeds United signee from beating him a second time in

four days.

With Guatemala clipping Antigua and Barbuda 1-0 in St John’s on Tuesday, the Central Americans, Jamaica and the USA are all locked on seven points each in Group A. Antigua are at the bottom of the four-nation pile on a solitary point.

The Boyz have two matches remaining when they go to Guatemala City for an October 12 showdown, before returning to ‘The Office’ to face Antigua four days later.

Only the top-two finishers in the group will advance to the CONCACAF Finals, from which three teams will automatically advance to Brazil 2014 World Cup. The fourth-place team will engage the winner from Oceana for the other spot.