LOS ANGELES, California — Senior members of the Reggae Boyz squad here have declared that last Friday’s 0-0 stalemate against El Salvador is now firmly behind them as they look to book their place in the knockout round on Tuesday.

The Jamaicans lead the group on goal difference over El Salvador on four points with one round of games to go. Curacao are third on three points, with Honduras already eliminated without a point after two games.

Jamaica need to avoid defeat against Curacao to guarantee themselves a place in the quarter-finals and the Boyz are confident, especially with destiny in their own hands.

“We definitely have moved on from our last game because there is nothing that we can do about that anymore, and the good thing is that we are atop the group and it’s in our favour,” central defender Shaun Francis told the Jamaica Observer.

“It is not like we are depending on another team to win or another team to lose; so once we take care of business by winning our game or even getting a point we know we are through… we think of ourselves as the best team in the group, so there is no way we should be going out there thinking that we can’t win. We know we have the capability and the strength to beat Curacao,” he added.

Captain and goalkeeper Andre Blake concurred.

“We know it’s a must-win game. we know it’s not going to be easy because they have a chance and they are going to come with everything they have, but we just have to play our game and continue to get better as the tournament goes on, and just go out there and give a professional performance.”

Had the Boyz won their game against El Salvador inside BBVA Stadium in Houston, they would have already booked their passage to Philadelphia for the quarter-finals next Sunday. but they left it too late in the second half to really put pressure on the Central Americans, after an ordinary first-half performance.

“We definitely thought we should have won the game, but if you look at the positive side we didn’t lose the game, we got a point and we are still on top of the group. so the outcome of the group is still in our favour and we just have to go out there and do what we have to do,” reasoned Francis.

“I felt like we had the opportunity to create stuff, but El Salvador came with a game plan where they wanted to sit back and catch us on the counter, so it was basically tough to break them down and I thought that was the difference in the game.”

The team appeared tentative in the first half and were extremely cautious in their approach play, only coming to life when Head Coach Theodore Whitmore introduced the pair of Shamar Nicholson and Darren Mattocks.

This moved forced the Central Americans on the back foot and the Boyz created a few chances and forced goalkeeper Henry Hernandez into decisive action.

“I would attribute that to the half-time speech — going out there with different ideas, different plays, and different personnel who came into the game to create opportunities for us to get chances to score,” explained Francis.

“In the first half we could have done a better job — the heat might have been a factor in terms of movement on and off the ball, but we still can’t complain with a point.”

Though the Boyz created only a few chances in Houston, they were much more compact in defence, as opposed to their opening game in Kingston against Honduras.

Truth be told, they never conceded a chance to El Salvador, and both Blake and Francis were pleased with that effort.

“To be honest, even though we have players in different positions, it is not like we’ve never played together. The backline overall, regardless of its composition, we’ve all played together before so we have a connection, we have a communication. and each practice session we build on that and we all know it doesn’t matter who you are, we can learn from each other — and that’s very important to us in terms of listening to each other and taking pointers from each other and absorb them like a sponge,” noted Francis, who lined up with Damion Lowe, Kemar Lawrence and Alvas Powell in the back four.

For Blake, it is important for the team to defend well if it wants to progress deep into the tournament.

“Very important, because defence wins championships. and I think even if we go back to the last Gold Cup we were very good defensively, as we gave up only two goals leading up to the final. so if you are very good defensively it is going to lead to attacking plays, which once you are finishing then you are close to winning the game.

“We gave up two disappointing goals in Kingston, and coming back with this performance is definitely a step in the right direction and we just hope to keep that going,” he ended.