NASHVILLE, Tennessee — Head coach of Jamaica’s senior football team Theodore Whitmore has lauded his players for a gallant effort despite being knocked out at the semi-final stage of this year’s edition of the Concacaf Gold Cup Tournament.

Jamaica went down 1-3 to the United States on Wednesday night and will now watch from home as the hosts face Mexico in Sunday’s grand finale at Soldier Field in Chicago.

“The future of Jamaica’s football is bright, even though we are out of the tournament,” Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer after the game Wednesday night.

“There are positives to be taken from the tournament,” he added.

The hosts ran the Jamaicans ragged for the first 15 minutes where they took a 1-0 lead through midfielder Weston McKennie before a lightning storm forced a 90-minute suspension of the game.

Christian Pulisic, the tormentor-in-chief for the US, doubled their lead in the 52nd minutes before substitute Shamar Nicholson halved the deficit for Jamaica on 69 minutes. Pulisic completed his brace in the 87th minute in an open contest played before 28,273 spectators.

Prior to the lightning break the Jamaicans were at sea as the US launched numerous attacks. Truth be told, the Reggae Boyz were fortunate to have only conceded once in that period, as goalkeeping captain Andre Blake was a busy man.

And Whitmore was grateful for the stoppage.

“I think it was a difficult start and I think the break gave us some help,” he admitted. “We made some adjustments, but unluckily we were down. One of the things that cost us the game was our indiscipline, especially in the back and the middle of the park, but all in all I’m pleased with the performance of the players throughout the tournament. “

It was a totally different ball game after the break, as the Jamaicans reappeared more assured of themselves, confident in their approach and determined to make a fight of the contest.

Leon Bailey was played behind the US defence inside the penalty area by Devon Williams, but the Bayer Leverkusen winger rushed his shot and it tamely went into the grateful arms of Zack Steffen in goal.

Je-Vaughn Watson then stole possession midway the US half and played in Mattocks, but his shot went high and wide.

Jamaica continued to enjoy good possession and threatened yet again when Flemmings let loose a rasping right-footer which was well parried by Steffen. And from a corner, Michael Hector drove a firm right-footer wide of Steffen’s left upright, as chances went abegging.

“We weren’t tracking in midfield and we were outnumbered most of the times in 2 v 1 in areas of the field, and for the defensive unit you could see that we missed Damion Lowe because the cohesiveness wasn’t there,” explained Whitmore.

The second half followed a similar trend to the first with both teams trading attacks, but the US proved more clinical when Pulisic was fastest to react to tap home after Jordan Morris had his fierce shot on goal blocked by Blake.

Nicholson came in and made an immediate impact when he headed home, powerfully, for his second goal of the tournament — second against the US and third overall.

That strike gave the Jamaicans a lifeline and kept the contest alive, though the Boyz were always vulnerable to the swift counter-attacks.

Pulisic made the game safe on 87 minutes when he was the beneficiary, for the second time, of the ball falling kindly for him after Blake had blocked a shot, this time from Paul Arriola.

For Jamaica, it was their third consecutive appearance at the Concacaf Gold Cup semi-finals, having been back-to-back beaten finalists in 2015 and 2017, but Whitmore is proud of the players and what they can achieve in the future.

“We have a young set of players here, so going forward we know what we have. So now we have to focus on 2022 World Cup qualification and that is right around the corner. Then and there we are supposed to know exactly where we want to go and what we want to achieve going forward.”

Bailey, who was recovering from an injury, played his best game since joining the Jamaican outfit and looked better and better as the tournament went on; Whitmore thought that he was just rounding into the form for which he is known.

“I think as the tournament progressed you could see that this was one of his better performances tonight (Wednesday). This is the Bailey people know,” he said.