ORLANDO, United States – Tyreek Magee appears a young player who has grown leaps and bounds.

He is not yet the finished product, but the prognosis is good for the future.

In his attacking midfield role for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz in their 0-1 defeat to Costa Rica in the final Group C match of the Concacaf Gold Cup, Magee’s maturity betrayed his 21 years.

As the game went on and Jamaica had the benefit of the sway, the former Jamaica College standout imposed himself on the contest – driving forward when he needed to, linking up with his fellow midfielders and delivering accurate final passes to his strikers.

Though his ability was never in doubt before getting his first start on Tuesday – an overcast night on which lightning strikes forced a lengthy delay – Magee gave a high-voltage performance.

And, he knows it.

“My teammates helped me a lot [through the game] as this was my first start for Jamaica since 2019, but as the game went on my confidence level built and I started to get on the ball a lot and do my thing. I think it was a decent game [for me] and I thought I could have done a lot more,” said the Belgium-based player.

“As I said before, it was my first time playing so many minutes for Jamaica, and I really enjoyed the game, other than the loss, and I think there are a lot of positives we can take from it,” Magee added.

The Eupen midfielder also gave high marks for the overall performance of his team.

“I think it was really a good game where we created a lot of chances but unfortunately, we didn’t take them and I think that was our downfall tonight,” he reasoned.

Magee, who represented local outfit Harbour View FC before moving on to Belgium in 2019, says there is nothing that the team did against the Costa Ricans that can’t be corrected in training.

“Now we will have to just go into the training sessions and just work on our finishing because, clearly, creating chances wasn’t a problem tonight [Tuesday], we just didn’t take them. We have to just go back to the training ground and try to be more clinical in front of goal,” he asserted.

“I really can’t find any faults, it’s just that we were not clinical enough, and that’s where we lost the game,” Magee added.

The Jamaica delegation was due to fly to Texas on yesterday to begin preparation for their quarter-final match against the USA on Sunday.

Even though the Boyz lost the match on Tuesday, they had already secured their place in the final eight of the tournament. They had defeated Suriname (2-0) and Guadeloupe (2-1) in earlier group match to finish their group in second place on six points.

Costa Rica topped the zone on maximum nine points and will face Canada in their quarter-final encounter at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, also on Sunday.