Strongman Lowe confident Boyz will hit their stride
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Down, but not out. That’s the unequivocal message coming from Reggae Boy Damion Lowe despite Jamaica getting off to a demoralising start to the Concacaf final stage of Fifa World Cup qualifying.
While last week’s 1-2 loss to Mexico brought painful disappointment because of the late goal the Boyz conceded inside the Azteca Stadium, there was more than a hint of silver lining given the determined effort they gave in debilitating high-altitude conditions.
But the abysmal display in the 0-3 defeat to visitors Panama at the National Stadium on Sunday was a crunching psychological blow to Jamaica’s qualification ambitions.
Ahead of last night’s clash with hosts Costa Rica in San Jose, the Reggae Boyz were rooted to the base of the octagonal, qualifying without a point.
Mexico were top with six points, followed by Panama (four), Canada (two), Honduras (two), United States (two), El Salvador (two), and Costa Rica, who had a single point.
“Of course, losing two games in a row is disappointing, but you have to think of it as a league – it’s 14 games. You have to manage each game, you have to approach games [differently], you have games away and at home,” Lowe said yesterday during a sit-down interview at the team hotel in the Costa Rican capital.
“It’s like a long, long season and people are going to drop points and people are gonna lose. We have lost two games, but other teams out there are dropping points too. Seeing that also drives us.
“We just need points on the board to get back in the mix. We still have to believe that, once we get going – just get out of the blocks – once we get points on the board, we’ll set ourselves in the right position,” the 28-year-old central defender told the Jamaica Observer.
The Concacaf final round of qualifying comprises eight teams playing in a round robin, home-and-away format.
The top three teams in the table will advance directly to the 2022 World Cup, with the fourth-placed finisher heading to an intercontinental play-off for one more spot in Qatar.
Lowe, who missed the Panama debacle in Kingston due to workload management, was expected to return for last night’s Costa Rica assignment.
After facing Costa Rica, the Jamaicans will have 11 games remaining in the Concacaf qualifiers, and regardless of last night’s result, they would still have a chance to progress to the global football showpiece.
“We’re disappointed about the results, but we can’t bring it back. We just have to make it right… we are professionals, we’ve been doing this for a long time and that’s just the mentality,” said Lowe, who plays club football for Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
“The guys have fire in their belly. We see what we can do, we see what we are capable of, we see what should be done. The guys in the squad, we know they are warriors. The mentality, the cohesiveness, the brotherhood have brought us a long way. That’s going to make the difference sometimes.
“In these kind of situations it’s just grinding it out, it’s just getting a result. Sometimes tactics are good, the game plan is good, but you just have to grind it out and get a result – that’s all that matters,” he told the Observer.