TORONTO, Canada — Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz soared to the top of Group B with seven points in the CONCACAF Gold Cup following a bruising 1-0 win over El Salvador at the BMO Field here yesterday.

Reading FC’s Garath McCleary, getting his second goal of the championship, hit the target in the 71st minute to set up an all-Caribbean quarter-final showdown with Haiti at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore on Saturday. Haiti were the runners-up in Group A with four points behind the United States, who finished with seven.

The last time Jamaica played in the Gold Cup in 2011, they reached the quarter-final stage, and although Haiti have proven to be a tough opposition over the years the Boyz go into this contest with the psychological advantage, having defeated their neighbour in the Caribbean Cup last year in Jamaica.

But it was not an easy road for Jamaica yesterday, having to make two forced first-half substitutions. The first came in the eighth minute when Houston Dynamo central defender Jermaine Taylor came out on the bitter end of a tackle. He was replaced by Reading FC’s Michael Hector.

Thirteen minutes later, another tragedy struck as goalkeeper Dwayne Miller was involved in bang up with an El Salvador player, and he stayed down and had to give way to Ryan Thompson. With brutish tackles from the El Salvador players and a seemingly sympathetic Guatemalan referee, the Boyz had embarked on a bumpy road to their goal.

But Jamaica’s misfortunes mounted when striker Darren Mattocks, getting his first start of the tournament, was shown a yellow card in the 81st minute for the second time in the game, and given his marching orders. But in all of that, Jamaica rose from the ashes like the mythical.

Phoenix and conquered the challenges to come out victorious, demonstrating in the process, a team capable of creating more than a stir in this tournament. No team, one suspects, will be taking these Reggae Boyz lightly, for their exploits from the Copa America have turned heads, and continue to do so.

In getting to seven points, Jamaica had drawn their first game 2-2 with Costa Rica in Los Angeles, then went on to clip Canada 1-0 in Houston. Last night’s win puts them in an unassailable position.

In the third minute, Jamaica threatened down the right side when Captain Rodolph Austin muscled his way past his marker to unleash a lost cross inside, but the ball bubbled up onto the hand of Jobi McAnuff and the promising move was called back by the referee.

El Salvador, with slick give-and-go movements, created some problems for the Jamaican defence, but the Boyz backline recovered well to nullify the moves.

But in the 13th minute of one such act, the Central Americans again ruffled Jamaican feathers when Jaime Alas released Pablo Punyed, whose resulting low cross in was cut out by an alert Wes Morgan.

In minute 18, Jamaica zoomed in on goal again when the busy McCleary angled a ball in for Austin, whose powerful low shot from 22 yards zipped by the upright of goalkeeper Derby Carrillo.

The Boyz created another threatening moment when Kemar Lawrence’s curling free-kick proved tricky for the El Salvadoran goalie, who spilled the ball for an alert Adrian Mariappa, whose low rightsided cross rolled dangerously across the face of goal, but no Jamaican was positioned to deliver the killer blow.

After a spell of possession changing hands without any telling end result, Jamaica went into their bag of tricks. In the 55th minute, Austin launched a long ball down the right for McCleary to latch onto, and the latter danced inside nicely, but his left-footed low drive posed little worries for Carrillo in goal.

Desperate for three points to keep hopes alive, El Salvador revved up the pressure by moving in on the Jamaican goal area with some regularity.

And in the most frightening play up to this point, Thompson was tested in the 58th minute with a blistering left-footed drive by Punyed, but the Jamaica keeper only managed to parry to the onrushing Flores, who followed up with a vicious shot from close range.

Again, Thompson was equal to the task. And as Jamaica slowly came into their rhythm, they finally picked the El Salvador lock with a nice but of team play.

After being played into the danger zone, Mattocks put the ball under control, passed inside for McAnuff following the play, and the Leyton Orient man then fired low forcing the goalie to spill for McCleary to finish off without a bother in the world.