ANTOFAGASTA, Chile — Reggae Boyz head coach Winfried Schaefer has declared that one of his goals in the Copa America Chile 2015 was to let South America and the world know that Jamaica can play good football. Well, after their refreshing performance which evoked genuine appreciation from fans and opponents alike in this mining town of Antofagasta, he wants more.

He wants his team to advance to the next round, at least. “I’m proud of the performance of the players, but not happy with the result, I wanted three points. When I go to a tournament if I don’t want to go to the second round, then the JFF president should take me out (fire me).

That’s my job, whether we play against Argentina or Brazil, it is not important. If I tell my players we have no chance for the second round, then we will have no chance for the second round. “Big compliments to the players, we played very good football, we had many chances for a goal, the tactical discipline was perfect, only the final pass (wasn’t too good),” he beamed at the mandatory post game press conference.

“Mattocks had a big chance and in the second half we missed two headers. I’m very, very proud of our team. We played against one of the best teams in South America, the winner from the last Copa America, so we couldn’t go out and press (attack at will) because we are not Barcelona.

We found our balance and we had a very good chance for the first goal and this was something that we analysed. We knew that if we closed the spaces then Uruguay would have problems, so we forced them into long passes,” he explained. He added: “Our problem was that the foul that resulted in the goal should have been a free kick for us, not for Uruguay.

The second half we introduced a second striker in Deshorn Brown. I’m happy about all players, Austin (captain Rodolph) played fantastically; Wes Morgan, the new players Hector (Michael), everybody played very well for this beautiful country.” Now Schaefer believes the team can perform even better and create a few surprises.

He’s not prepared only to be satisfied with performing well against the top ranked teams. “We want to go to the quarter-finals, that’s why we came to Chile to play in the Copa America,” he said boldly. “Now we have to watch the players how they recover.

The next game against Paraguay is going to be very difficult and we hope one player (Je-Vaughn Watson) will come to help us from FC Dallas tomorrow.” He revealed that the players were disappointed about the call which led to the free kick, which ultimately resulted in the goal.

Schaefer also lamented the fact that the team had three or four free kicks which weren’t delivered properly, so, now, he said, they will have to prepare better for those situations which could be useful against Paraguay and Argentina. “Tomorrow (today) is a new day and we know we can play good football and we hope against Paraguay we can play the same and have a little bit of luck.

“For this match nobody gave us a chance, but I hope the people in Chile and South America know now that we can play good football in Jamaica, though our main goal is preparation for the World Cup qualification.”