Photo: Yannis Valcy of Guadeloupe is challenged by Donovan Dawkins for possession of the ball in their CFU U-17 qualifiers. Jamaica won the game 3-0.
After a slight scare against Cayman on Monday night where they had to come from behind to win, Jamaica’s young Reggae Boyz put in a much better performance against a good Guadeloupe team to book their place in the final round of 2014 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) men’s under -17 qualifiers.
The Boys defeated Guadeloupe 3-0 in an unexpectedly one sided contest, at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex on Wednesday evening in front of a large partisan crowd. After creating a number of half chances early in the game, Jamaica finally broke the deadlock with 23 minutes on the clock. Nicholas Nelson, who was given the chance to start, fired a grounder from the edge of the area into the far corner of the goal, beyond the despairing dive of Ronald Echard in the Guadeloupe goal.
Four minutes later Alex Marshall produced a brilliant piece of individual skill to get by two defenders before passing to Nelson inside the box. The striker saw his side-footed effort, well saved by Echard from point blank range.
Guadeloupe’s best chance of the half came in the 31st minute when Ludovic Zelateur crossed for Heindrix Hebreu but the forward failed to make proper contact and when the ball fell kindly to Yonel Coloneaux he was unable to make good use of his chance.
Jamaica made Guadeloupe pay for their missed chance when Nelson doubled his and his team’s tally, firing home from inside the area to make it 2-0 in the 34th minute.
A minute before half time, the impressive Marshall hit the woodwork with a curling free kick from all of 25 yards.
Donovan Dawkins who had been the main destroyer in the Jamaican mauling of the US Virgin Islands on match day 1, got his name on the score sheet when he bundled home in the 55th minute to kill the game as a contest.
In the curtain raiser, a 2-0 Cayman Islands saw the winless US Virgin Islands end the tournament without scoring a goal.
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