Belief high Reggae Boyz can reach final – Blake
GLENDALE, Arizona (CMC) – Captain Andre Blake says the Reggae Boyz hope to capitalise on their good form and book a place in next Wednesday’s final of the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The Caribbean side played unbeaten in the preliminary round to finish second in Group C behind Mexico, and beat Canada 2-1 in their quarter final on Thursday to set up a semi-final meeting on Sunday with the Mexicans.
“It’s been great. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’ve been doing for the team, whatever it takes,” said Blake, who has been Jamaica’s outstanding player in the tournament.
“It’s been a great run for us, every game from here on in is a final so now we’re into the semi-finals and hopefully we can go in again and get three more points.”
Jamaica went down to Mexico 3-1 in the final of the 2015 Gold Cup but played to a goalless draw when they reunited their rival in preliminary round action eight days ago in Denver.
The result marked the first time the Jamaicans had avoided defeat to Mexico in seven all-time Gold Cup matches.
However, the Philadelphia Union custodian said the Reggae Boys would not be distracted by their opponents but would be focused on their own game.
“It’s more about us than them,” Blake said. “We’re going to respect whoever comes but it’s going to be about us going in an executing our game plan.”
After notching a single win in the preliminaries, Jamaica conjured up perhaps their best performance of the tournament when Shaun Francis scored in the first half and Romario Williams in the second, to help down Canada.
Junior Hoilett made the game interesting with a 71st minute goal but Blake then pulled off a string of saves to help Jamaica preserve their lead.
“When we got the second goal we kind of had a break and I think we lapsed a little bit,” Blake conceded.
“They scored a beautiful goal but we figured it out and we fought back and we won the game so that’s good for us.”