Canada’s men’s national team fell 1-0 to Jamaica at the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup on Saturday at Houston’s BBVA Compass Stadium.
Jamaica’s Gareth McCleary found space in the Canadian penalty area to head home a perfect cross in the 92nd minute to undo a battling Canadian performance in the Texas heat.
Whitecaps FC midfielder Russell Teibert and striker Darren Mattocks both appeared in the match as second-half substitutes. Mattocks played 26 minutes for the Reggae Boyz, while Teibert played 20 minutes for the Red and White to earn his 15th senior cap.
“We need to analyze the full game,” said Canada head coach Benito Floro. “Consider that in the first half we had opportunities but Jamaica was at a different level than us. It is important for us is to understand that this is a good experience as in the first half we played well. We did not play well in the second half but it is a good performance, we fought a lot. We worked a lot for the 85 minutes.”
Canada will now travel to Toronto for its last group stage match versus Costa Rica on Tuesday, July 14 at BMO Field, knowing that a victory is required to ensure qualification to the knockout stages of the competition.
“It just comes down to us getting a win against Costa Rica and the one advantage we have is that we’re playing at home,” said midfielder Julian de Guzman. “Going into Canada will give us confidence to get a win. It’s still there for us. I know the guys won’t feel happy about the result (vs. Jamaica) and it’s just a matter of bouncing back. We know that we’ll have the crowd behind us. We still believe that we can walk out of this group with four points.”
The 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup features the top 12 teams from the region split into three groups of four. The top two teams from each group and the best two third-place teams shall advance to the quarterfinals. A total of 13 cities will play host to matches with the final taking place at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, July 26.
GROUP B STANDINGS
<strong>TEAM</strong> |
<strong>GP</strong> |
<strong>W</strong> |
<strong>D</strong> |
<strong>L</strong> |
<strong>PTS</strong> |
Jamaica |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
Costa Rica |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
El Salvador |
2 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
2 |
Canada |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
