Though the Jamaica Under-17 men’s team have missed out on the Fifa World Cup in Qatar later this year, Assistant Coach Vassell Reynolds believes a solid platform has been laid for the unit to qualify for 2026 and beyond.

The young Reggae Boyz were moments away from a historic third appearance at the World Cup but an 80th-minute strike from Brandon Ramirez gave El Salvador the 2-1 win to top Group H in the Concacaf Under-17 Championship at Estadio Cementos Progeso in Guatemala.

Jamaica, on six points, had entered the encounter only needing a point to qualify after having a better goal difference than their opponents.

Reynolds said the team was gutted to miss out.

“The boys have expressed their disappointment and you can understand. It [was] a long journey, and we did what we had to do right up to the final game and just missed out in the final minutes. [It is] not just the boys, but the entire staff are disappointed with the end result,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

“We had difficulties during the game in terms of some referee calls, but we had anticipated that. Maybe mentally we didn’t deal with it as best as we could have, and I’m not using it as an excuse, but I thought our nerves and the inability to manage certain moments may have been some of the factors why we lost out in the end,” Reynolds added.

However, after spending close to a year with the team, Reynolds says the players deserve credit.

“They would have shown growth on and off the pitch. There was some need for a level of integration with the local players and the overseas players and the long period of time we got would have aided that. The boys showed growth mentally and technically over the period of time; it’s just unfortunate [we didn’t] achieve our ultimate goal,” he said.

Despite this year’s disappointment, Jamaica will have another shot of qualification in a year’s time due to the change in format which sees the Under-17 tournament being held every year in Qatar until 2029.

Reynolds says the lessons learnt, along with the talent pool available, should lead to more World Cup appearances going forward.

“One of the decisions we took was to take along a couple of reserve players just for them to observe and to see what this level is like. They will be part of the programme next year, so we did that from a strategic point of view. We’re very optimistic as a team that we would have learnt enough and we can always wish for the best in terms of development and growth, and the process continues with the U-15 and U-14,” he said.

“It’s no secret that we need to prepare well, we need time to prepare these youngsters and that would prove over time that’s the right way to go. I’m certain that the U-14 and the U-15 programme would have started, and the fact that we have the U-17 every year, the U-14 and U-15 programmes become even more important; so we need to keep those boys together,” Reynolds added.

— Daniel Blake