We suspect some football lovers thought once, twice, thrice, then decided against attending Jamaica’s Concacaf World Cup football qualifier against Guatemala at the National Stadium on Tuesday night.

We say that because of the 6:00 pm start to the game at just past the height of stressful, week-day, peak-hour traffic in Kingston.

Happily, thousands actually turned up, cheering joyfully as the Reggae Boyz cruised past the Central Americans 3-0 in the last game of the penultimate round of qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.

The value of home support — the aptly named “12th man” — is well-established in sport.

We well remember the build-up to qualification for the 1998 World Cup in France when Jamaica became so hard to beat before massed thousands on home soil that the National Stadium became “The Office”.

Now Jamaica’s Head Coach Mr Steve McClaren, who was overseeing his first victory on home soil, wants the stadium to become a “fortress” on match days — without an empty seat.

We strongly suspect that regardless of the hour, jam-packed crowds will become routine for home games in the next round of World Cup qualifiers, should the national team reproduce and build on their attractive showing Tuesday.

Of course, there was no great pressure as both teams had already qualified for the next round.

Nonetheless, the Jamaican performance to top their group was satisfying — especially in the context of their cagey 1-0 away win over British Virgin Islands last week.

By now, coaches and players are aware of their opponents in the next round following Thursday evening’s draw.

As we understand it, 12 Concacaf teams still in contention for places at next year’s World Cup will be in three groups of four for the final qualifying phase.

Group winners will automatically advance to the ‘big dance’ in the United States, Canada, and Mexico — those three Concacaf nations having already qualified by virtue of being hosts.

We are told that in the final qualifying phase the Reggae Boyz will be grouped separately from always-dangerous Costa Rica and Panama.

But in competitive sport every opponent represents a potential, metaphoric banana peel.

Which is why, despite recent encouraging displays, Mr McClaren is demanding greater consistency from his team, for 90 minutes, game after game.

“… We haven’t seen that yet. The key in football is always consistency,” he is reported as saying.

As the coach’s quest for that quality intensifies, he and his team leaves today for the Concacaf Gold Cup campaign in the USA.

Coincidentally, their first Gold Cup opponents will be Guatemala — no doubt yearning for revenge — on Monday, with Guadeloupe and Panama to follow in group play.

Obviously, the Gold Cup presents a huge opportunity for Mr McClaren to further fine-tune his squad ahead of that last round of World Cup qualifiers.

His message to players is that they must be at their best at all times, from now on.

Said he: “There’s competition for places …nobody … should expect to play automatically, they have to earn the right and [having] earned the right to play — they’ve got to earn the right to stay in that shirt because the competition behind them is very good…”

And through it all Jamaicans will be right there, watching their backs and cheering them on.