MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica  (CMC) – Jamaican officials continued yesterday to hail their Under-17 Boys’ national team for reaching the Under-17 World Cup.
Striker Jason Wright scored a brace on Wednesday at the Catherine Hall Stadium to boot the Jamaicans into the age group World Cup, when they put away Honduras 2-1, and also qualified for the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Championship.
The Junior Reggae Boyz will be the only Caribbean Football Union side to travel this June to Mexico, where they will join fellow CONCACAF qualifiers Canada, Panama, and the United States.
“I’m ecstatic for the youngsters because they have been away (in Brazil) for so long, and all the sacrifice they have made,” said head coach Wendell Downswell.
“This is the best game they have played. What they need to do now is to (consistently) play two good halves.”
He added: “We knew it was not going to be easy, but we started out believing it could happen.
“We put in the hard work, motivated the players and once they started believing we knew that it would happen.”
Wright struck in either half of the last quarter-final in the CONCACAF Championship before a vocal, partisan crowd.
He increased his aggregate to four in the Championship, and sent the Jamaicans through to their second Under-17 Boys’ World Cup for the first time in 12 years.
The administration of Jamaica Football Federation president Horace Burrell was heavily criticised for spending a large sum to send the squad to Brazil to fine-tune their preparations for the tournament.
He wore a broad smile following the match, and insisted that the outcome justified the decision.
“It was a great feeling to be in the atmosphere inside the stadium, and to see Jamaica qualify for another Under-17 World Cup,” he said.
“This means the world to us, right now. It’s beyond words. It’s a tremendous achievement, and we are all happy with the result.”
He added: “In 1998, when we qualified for the World Cup in France, we never had a properly structured youth programme.
“Now, we have decided to start with our young players, and having qualified, we will now have a cadre of young players from whom to select for tournaments in the future. This will also inspire several other young players to do well.”
Minister of Sport Olivia ‘Babsy’ Grange attended the crucial game, and was proud to see the commitment shown by the young players to the cause.
“They put their heart and soul into it,” she said. “The JFF did everthing they could to get them ready for this competition.
“It was a great day for the players, it was a great day for the sport, it was a great day for Jamaica, it was a great day for the youths of Jamaica.”
She said: “I have seen a team that has the right attitude, that works hard, that trains hard, and the sky is the limit.
“I expect them to win the semi-final (of the CONCACAF Championship) and reach the Final because the Cup will be staying in Jamaica.”
Once the Jamaican celebrations settle down, they face the United States in the second semi-final of the CONCACAF Championship today here.