COACH Theodore Whitmore admitted Mount Pleasant FA are below the level of the elite teams in the region, after they were sent packing from the Concacaf Champions Cup by LA Galaxy.

Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant are the Caribbean champions, but they lost both legs 0-3 to United States Major League Soccer team LA Galaxy to exit on the wrong side of a 0-6 aggregate defeat.

Despite having more shots (10) to Galaxy’s (8), Mount Pleasant failed to register a goal in the return match at the National Stadium on Thursday.

LA Galaxy’s Gabriel Pec notched goals in the 61st and 87th minutes, after Joao Klauss had opened the scoring in the 18th.

The Brazilian Pec was a thorn in Mount Pleasant’s skin, netting five of the six goals over both legs.

“All in all, I think it’s a different level, you know, different level… so we just have to brush ourselves off,” said Whitmore.

“It’s a totally different ball game. If you ask [me], the level that they play at is non-comparable to our competition. You have to take a lot of things into consideration, the facilities, everything,” Whitmore, a former midfielder and Jamaican football World Cup hero, reiterated.

He said there were improvements from last week’s first-leg loss in California when they were forced to field a weakened team.

“But if you ask me, I will say it would be a better performance from the last time we played. If you look on the possession this afternoon, we had more possession than the last game.”

Mount Pleasant had 45 per cent ball possession, but it was a fairly comfortable two legs for LA Galaxy as they easily kept the former Jamaica Premier League champions at bay.

There were some bright spots for Mount Pleasant but — largely due to poor decision-making — they just didn’t get it together at crucial times, and paid the price.

But Mount Pleasant would have some level of satisfaction, having played the first leg without at least 10 of their better players due to visa issues. The three-goal deficit entering the second leg made life extra difficult for them as they had to chase the game against a well-organised Galaxy team which could afford to sit back and pick apart their moments, which they did expertly.

“Well the campaign, I should say it would have to be the experience. As I said before, it’s a different level. I think we… stood up to the task so the experience is good in this tournament,” said Whitmore.

WHITMORE… you have to take a lot of things into consideration, the facilities, everything Photo: Karl Mclarty