PHOENIX, United States — Who would’ve thought it?

Clearly Shaun Francis and Romario Williams, two of the heroes of the Reggae Boyz’s 2-1 victory over Canada in the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament quarter-finals on Thursday night here inside the University of Phoenix Stadium.

It could have been team manager Roy Simpson’s uncanny foresight, or simply divine intervention. But whatever it was, it appears a match made in heaven, as Francis and Williams were paired together as roommates and they actually spoke about making positive impacts on the game the night before.

Francis opened the scoring in the sixth minute and Williams doubled the advantage on 50 minutes.

“No, Romario can tell you that last night (Wednesday night) we were here talking and I was telling him how excited I was in terms of can’t wait for this game to come. I told him that I was going to my bed early so that morning could come because I was really motivated and excited to play this game,” explained an elated Francis, who had yet to play any part for the Reggae Boyz up to that point.

“Started the game and got the first chance and I honestly think it might have been my first touch of the game. I saw that Darren (Mattocks) got the ball on the right side and I saw him dribbling to the byline and my instinct was to get into the box (penalty) as soon as possible because if he crosses it you don’t know what could happen.

“I looked over and I realised that he saw me, but all the Canadian defenders they were just ball-watching, following the ball, so I tried to give myself some time and some space and I saw the ball coming across and I tried my best to keep calm and composed and just put it in the back of the net,” reflected the Montreal Impact defender.

Yet despite the team’s progress to the semi-finals, Francis, who hurt his hamstring while playing for Jamaica in the Caribbean Cup in Martinique a few weeks ago, believes that the team can offer more.

“Definitely, I still think we have not seen the best of this team. It still can go back to the fact that the team has not been together for that long, but still I know and I think we are going to prove that we still have another gear.

“I think we lapse at times but it is still a matter of us coming together and making sure we stick together as a team, motivate each other out there and I know, definitely, we will show that we have another gear in us.”

Meanwhile, Williams, who scored a screamer for his second goal of the tournament following his strike against Curacao in the tournament opener in San Diego, was happy for his roommate and their contribution to the team’s success.

“Yeah, we did, actually. We did have a discussion last night (Wednesday night) and on Tuesday as well, and it’s funny because I told him that this is a game that he might get a start and it worked out that way and I’m happy to see he came in the team and in the first game of the tournament and first start he was able to get on the scoresheet.

“That first goal early in the game gave us all the confidence that we needed and the driving force to go forward and it was huge.

“Darren played a really good ball across and he was able to slot it home,” Williams beamed.

Williams added that they were prepared for the North Americans and they expected to exploit their backline with speed.

“The team came out and gave a good showing of ourselves. We knew the Canadian team that they were going to come out and fear our speed as we are good in attack and we were able to get in behind their defence a couple times in the early stages and that’s how we were able to get the first breakthrough.

“We just continued applying pressure on them and we knew that once we combined well our quality was going to show and we were able to get a second goal which kind of finished off the game.”

His strike has been highly rated by commentators and the Atlanta United FC striker on loan to Charleston Battery, couldn’t have been more pleased with the effort.

“Definitely, I saw the ball go in to Darren and he had two defenders on his back and I called him for the layoff and he set me up well for a shot and I took a good touch inside and saw the goalkeeper cheating a little bit and I was able to curl it in the far post, and fortunately it got a deflection, but yeah, we’ll take it.”

Continuing, he said: “We were able to give ourselves a two-goal cushion, but obviously 10 minutes later they were able to get one back, but we had put ourselves in the driver’s seat and it was definitely not cruise control because they did come at us trying to get the equalising goal, but that second goal was huge and that’s something that we told ourselves in the locker room that if we could get one in the first 10, 15 minutes of the second half, then that would be tremendous and we were able to do that.”

Williams said that he wasn’t surprised by the high line maintained by the Canadian defence, despite the fact that the Jamaicans are renowned for their speed.

“I wasn’t surprised at the high line they played, to be honest; that’s their style of play. And that’s the way they have been playing all tournament, so we really didn’t expect them to change that much and we knew that would play into our favour and it certainly did tonight. But unfortunately we weren’t able to get two or three more goals, but that’s how the game is.

“We look to continue our form and build on our performance tonight on to the next game,” he said.

Francis thought the second goal was the also critical, as a two-goal cushion was definitely needed against an adversary who would throw everything to get back into the game.

“We discussed it in the locker room at half time and we spoke about it amongst ourselves and we thought about it. We talked about not getting that second goal in the first half when we were getting chances and we spoke about going out there knowing that the first 15 minutes would be crucial for the team and knowing that we needed to score and not concede in that time…

“Darren got the ball from a throw in from Kemar (Lawrence) and he held it up well and played it to Romario, who did a fantastic job and just played it in the top corner with a curler. Wonderful goal.

“It’s tough on them as strikers doing a lot of chasing and they are the ones who start the defence for us, as we have to work off them and I have to give credit to them.

“After the second goal we definitely said yes, but I don’t think that we were comfortable in saying it’s over because the game is not over until the final whistle and this is football and anything can happen in football.

“They scored and at that time we just had to not hold out heads down and just stay into the game, stay focused for the rest of the time, we just could not lapse or break down or let them break us down.

“I know they got a couple chances and Blake (Andre) our captain, you can see from the beginning of the tournament how magnificent he has been in goal for us and it shows that he’s a world-class ‘keeper and him making those saves does so much in motivating us to finish off the game,” explained Francis.

And on his substitution, he noted that he was not surprised, though he wanted to be out on the pitch in the heat of battle. But he fully understands coach Theodore Whitmore’s thinking, especially with him being short of match fitness due to a recent injury.

“You don’t want to come off, but I knew I was going to get pulled at some point in time because I haven’t been playing much and this was basically my first game in a while, so the match fitness caught up with me and the legs got heavy and as a coach you have to see those situations on the field and see where best you can make a substitution and make an improvement on the field and I was pulled.

“I wasn’t upset; in my head I was just thinking that I need to work harder and get fitter because we have two more games that we want to win — the semi-final and go to the final and win that because we keep saying we are not here to compete, we are here to win,” he ended.