NATIONAL senior men’s football team Assistant Coach Merron Gordon says Morocco’s recent performance at the FIFA World Cup gives him hope about the future of the Reggae Boyz.

Bookmakers gave Morocco 200-1 odds to win the World Cup before the tournament started but the North Africans proved themselves the tournament’s dark horses with upset victories over then world number 2-ranked Belgium in the group stage, Spain in the round of 16, and Portugal in the quarter-final, before finishing the tournament fourth.

Although they were not necessarily the most attacking team, they earned the respect of many pundits and viewers with their tactical discipline and counter-attacking style of play.

Gordon, who is still in the early stages of his coaching career, took charge of the Reggae Boyz on an interim basis for a four-nation tournament in Austria in August which also featured Morocco, World Cup hosts Qatar, and Ghana, who also took part in the World Cup.

In spite of a 3-0 loss to Morocco the Boyz were competitive until late in the second half of the game when fatigue and lapses in concentration allowed the 1-0 scoreline to triple.

He says he and friend Vassell Reynolds, another assistant coach in the national set-up at the time, knew from their discussions that Morocco posed a serious threat in Qatar.

“What Morocco did most of the World Cup is what we did to them when we played in Austria,” Gordon told the Jamaica Observer. “We decided that the Morocco team was very good so we had to give them the ball and play on the counter. That Morocco team led us 1-0 up to about ‘seventy-nuff’ minutes — and these were the locally based Reggae Boyz. When you organise yourself defensively for international games — especially when you give the opponent that kind of leverage and respect that if you go toe-to-toe with them they might beat you badly — but if you organise and plan properly you can get a positive result from the game.

“What impressed me about them from seeing them in person is that their shortest player is six feet tall — all of them have size. They might not look thick but they are very strong players and they move the ball well. It’s a very good picture for the future for us locally.”

Gordon is motivated by the Moroccans’ style of play because it is similar to how Heimir Halgrímsson, who took over as Jamaica’s head coach in September, sets up his teams.

Qatar, who had a 1-1 draw with the Reggae Boyz in August, created unwanted history by becoming the first World Cup hosts to lose all their games and be eliminated from the first round.

Gordon says in spite of that performance he believes Qatar to be a good team that perhaps over-prepared ahead of the World Cup. Little information was shared about the team heading into the Austrian tournament, even in the game against Jamaica, with no media presence allowed. This was because the Qatar Football Association tried to keep its preparation a secret from its World Cup opponents.

“What I think they suffered from is too much money,” Gordon said. “They played way too many practice games and were leggy going into the World Cup; the other countries came in very sharp. And with all the games Qatar played they were at the back end of their season, if you get what I’m trying to say. The Qatar team we saw at the Gold Cup last year and the one we saw at the World Cup were two different teams in terms of how they were running and playing. Because they have so much money they went all over the world and played way too many games.”

Gordon says the timing of this year’s World Cup was significant to the quality of performances.

Being staged in Qatar meant the World Cup had to be moved from its usual schedule of June to July, to November to December instead to allow for cooler temperatures for games. But it also meant that rather than being fatigued at season’s end, players would be at peak fitness, given the tournament started three months after most major club seasons.

“People were speculating that [the timing of] it wasn’t a good idea but in terms of viewership, I think it was the best one I’ve ever seen,” Gordon said. “Players could run and not feel tired because they’re fit and ready to go.”

While Gordon laments that players such as Senegal’s Sadio Mané, and Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kanté of runners-up France were absent from the tournament with injuries, he says he is thrilled that Argentina won the title and that its Captain Lionel Messi, 35 years old, was able to secure the one trophy missing from his list of accomplishments.

“I wanted him to win for two reasons,” he said. “I knew that if he won he’d consider playing [the next World Cup] at 39, but if he lost, for sure he would play at 39.”

This is tied to Gordon’s confidence that Jamaica will qualify for the next tournament, which will be played in Canada, the United States of America, and Mexico in 2026. He says that being sure the Reggae Boyz will be there, he will want to see Messi there as well.

“Hopefully he can play against Jamaica again,” Gordon said with a hearty laugh.

Gordon was in the technical area for Halgrímsson’s first game with Jamaica, an international friendly match against Argentina in September.

There, the Reggae Boyz lost 3-0. It was Messi’s brace that really ended the competitive nature of the game after he was brought off the bench late in the second half.