MIAMI, Florida, (CMC) – Jamaica, sparked by three second-half goals, crushed St Kitts & Nevis 5-0 and were the only one of the four fellow Caribbean Football Union (CFU) teams that won their match in the Concacaf Gold Cup on Sunday in the United States.
Di Shon Bernard, Daniel Johnson, and Cory Burke followed up an own goal and a strike from Jonathan Rusell with second-half items at Levi Stadium and enabled the CFU No. 2 Jamaicans to shut the door on the CFU No. 12 Kittitians.
The result meant that the Reggae Boyz completed an unbeaten run in Group A, and punched their ticket to be the only team in the quarterfinals of the tournament, where they will meet the winner of Group D next Sunday at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Sugar Boyz will return home without a point, but they can still hold their heads high after an inspiring run in the preliminary phase, where they upset Curaçao and French Guiana in penalty kicks shoot-outs to reach the Group Stage of the tournament .
The outcome was also not so kind for CFU No. 3 Trinidad & Tobago in the other Group A match at Bank of America Stadium, where striker Jesus Ferreira notched another hat-trick, and the United States brushed aside the Soca Warriors 6-0 to secure first and a spot in the quarterfinals.
At the same venue, CFU No. 1 Haiti failed to hold onto an early lead, and Honduras rallied back to beat them 2-1 in the final match in Group B for both teams, who failed to advance to the quarterfinals.
IN SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA: St Kitts & Nevis captain and goalkeeper Julani Archibald deflected the ball into the nets for an own goal on the half-hour mark to give Jamaica a head start, after a deep cross from Aston Villa winger Leon Bailey reached Dynamo Kyiv winger Kaheem Parris, who tried to play the ball back across the goal.
The floodgates opened for the Jamaicans from there, and Russell scored a rasping right-footed shot two minutes into first-half extra time after Bailey played the ball into his path with a slick back-heel.
The momentum stayed with the Reggae Boyz, and they extended their lead on a tidy finish from Bernard after a pass from Shamar Nicholson in the 49th minute.
The Sugar Boyz got a couple of good looks at goal through Romaine Sawyers, but his finishing let him down, and Johnson pushed Jamaica further ahead after an initial block from substitute goalkeeper Jamal Jeffers, and Cory Burke followed up with a tidy finish two minutes later.
IN CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA: T&T goalkeeper Marvin Phillip was under siege from early, and the Soca Warriors bowed out of the tournament with only one win from their three matches for three points.
Ferreira scored in the 14th and 38th minutes before adding a penalty kick in the third minute of first-half stoppage time to become the first player to score hat-tricks in two different Gold Cup matches in the same tournament and American to achieve the feat in successive matches.
Phillip had no answer when Ferreira moved the ball from his left foot to his right foot, and he ripped off a shot to finish a pass from left back De Juan Jones.
The second goal came after Phillip made an initial stop, but a second chance from Ferreira was headed towards the goal before hitting the leg of T&T defender Sheldon Bateau and continued into the net.
Phillip was again beaten when Ferreira converted a penalty after Djordje Mihailovic drew a foul in the box to take his tally to six goals in the Gold Cup and broke the American record of five by Chris Wondolowski a decade ago.
In the second half, T&T fell further behind when Cade Cowell ran onto a wayward pass from a T&T player and scored in the 65th minute in a one-on-one with Phillip, and North Carolina-born Gianluca Busio tallied in the 79th minute when he scored his first goal for the Americans following a build-up orchestrated by DeAndre Yedlin and Julian Gressel.
The fifth defeat for T&T against the United States in the Gold Cup was formalised when substitute Brandon Vazquez ran onto a pass into the box from Cowell and scored in the fourth minute of second-half stoppage time.
Later at the same venue, Haiti grabbed the lead in the 20th minute when Frantzdy Pierrot scored from close range after Duckens Nazon fired in a shot from near the corner of the area and Honduras goalkeeper Edrick Menjivar saved it, but he failed to control the rebound.
The Haitians failed to keep up their intensity, and Honduras equalised in the 43rd minute when Jerry Bengtson nodded a header to the back post after a cross from defender Maylor Nunez.
After the break, Honduras doubled the lead in the 59th minute when midfielder Jorge Alvarez scooped a pass over Haiti’s back line that José Pinto was able to bring it down with his first touch and finish.
