KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s Under-20 men’s team will have a mountain to climb if they are to qualify for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup after they were hammered 9-0 by a rampant United States team on Friday.

The young Reggae Boyz were playing their opening Concacaf Championships Group A game at the Miguel Aleman Valdez Stadium in Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico.

They looked disorganized, especially in their own defensive area where they were slow to react to the slick moving Americans and scrambled to make three first half substitutions in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

The top two teams from the group will advance to the semi-finals and Costa Rica and Cuba played out a 1-1 draw in the opening game of the double header.

The Jerome Waite-coached team will play Costa Rica on Monday and Cuba next Thursday at the same venue.

The Jamaicans were squarely behind the proverbial eight ball from as early as the third minute when they conceded a second goal and were well out of the contest after 20 minutes, trailing 4-0.

David Vasquez in the second and third minutes and Pedro Soma in the 16th and 20th minutes scored braces to give the Americans a brilliant start and they led 5-0 at the break with Cruz Medina scoring in the 39th minute.

Marcos Zambrano made it 6-0 in the 54th minute, Ruben Ramos added the seventh in the 67th minute while second half substitutes Nimfasha Berchimas in the 77th minute and Nikolas Tsakiris in time added on completed the scoring.

— Paul A Reid