FULLY conscious of their free-falling FIFA rankings and an unfavourable result (1-1) against Martinique in their opening game, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz made a pledge among themselves to lift their game and give their all for the black, green and gold in the 2014 CFU Caribbean Cup on home soil. In fact, captain Rodolph Austin had said that they were willing to die for each other. Well, shortly after 10:30 pm on Tuesday, they delivered on their promise and won their sixth Caribbean Cup title under the most gruelling conditions that most, if not all, would have experienced.

The Jamaica Observer caught up with a few of the heroic players.

Rodolph Austin, team captain: I was surprised (about T&T level of fitness) to be honest, because they had more rest than us, but we dug deep as a team and did well and we found out they were tired so we started to attack them. But both teams defended well. We got a few chances better than them but we didn’t take them, but having said that we are happy we won the tournament. It is a good thing for the country. This team deserves to be praised… the back line has been fantastic, the goalkeeper also, that’s what won us the tournament and we just have to grow from this. We are always going to have critics in football and as a nation Jamaicans like to do well, and it is always pressure to do well because the people want to have the best team and sometimes we are not even the best players, but the people have big expectations. Now we have shown here when we get support — the first couple games we didn’t have a lot of people in the stands and we reached the final and the stands were full — so we just want the people behind us to support us and we will try our best to give back to them. It’s good to be MVP, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.

Darren Mattocks, joint Golden Boot winner: It was a total team effort. I have to be grateful to God, but I have to be grateful to my teammates as well. After the first game there were some doubters, but as in football and life in general, you are going to have ups and downs and when your back is against the wall and no one believes in you that is when you have to rise and show what you are capable of doing, and even though it is the Caribbean Cup, we showed what we are capable of doing. I think Jamaica’s football still has a couple more levels to go, but we are going to enjoy this one for a bit and then come next year for the Gold Cup and the Copa America and go at it again. We don’t want it to stop here, we want to move Jamaica’s football to another level. We are grateful that tomorrow morning we can put a smile on the faces of the Jamaican people because they have been lacking any joy because we haven’t been at our best for some time, but this one definitely tastes sweet.

Simon Dawkins, midfielder/striker: It’s good, the hard work that we have put in has finally come to an end and it’s good to come out as winners. It’s definitely been a good trip and it is worth it, no bad feelings. Once we got the win it was like wow, because we have been through a lot these past few months and we have been under a bit of pressure in this tournament as well, so to finally have that win is great.

It was hard, even though I only played the last three games, you just had to go out there and grind it out until you get the result and we got it and it is a lot better when you win.

Joel Grant, midfielder: Words can’t express how I feel right now, but we have been working hard for this. We didn’t start the tournament how we wanted to, but we ended it how we wanted, so I’m happy, man. The four games in seven days is unheard of for me; however, the boys handled it very well, the field was very difficult to play on, it was difficult at times to pass and dribble, but at the end of the day to win is an unbelievable achievement.

Jobi McAnuff, midfielder: It sounds good, obviously that’s what we came for. Before the tournament a lot of expectations, especially being on home soil, so it’s nice when you can deliver what we came for, so I’m over the moon. We had a chat before the tournament started because our ranking was nowhere good enough for what we feel our ability is as a team and as a country, so that was a very important thing for us, and in terms of the tournaments coming up, obviously those are the ones where you want to test yourselves against the best teams and the best players, and hopefully with what we’ve got in the next couple of years we can get a bit of momentum and build on this great platform to move forward as a football nation. As far as my career is concerned it’s been the hardest week I’ve had with the games we’ve had, the conditions, the pitch, everything, and to come out on top of that, we are going to enjoy it tonight, that’s for sure.

Nyron Nosworthy, defender: Sweet. There was a lot of pressure on our shoulders, but it was all to do well, and everyone applied that pressure as an important tool for us to work as a team and win the trophy and that’s what we have done. We want to go to those tournaments and try and put ourselves on the map and show everyone that we have not just been invited, but the reason why we are here is to show how we have elevated in football and how far we have come to being respected as high as the others and hold our own and hopefully do something special.

— Ian Burnett