Jamaica lost 3-0 to Uruguay in a meaningless match on Monday night, wrapping up their Copa America with zero points and zero goals. They were expected to compete with Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela after putting together an excellent Gold Cup and recruiting some new English-Jamaicans into the team, but they consistently fell flat.
An own goal to summarize Jamaica’s Copa America
Say goodbye to the Reggae Boyz, probably for a long time.
Harry How/Getty Images
Here's Uruguay's second goal, an own goal by Je-Vaughn Watson.
Uruguay's second goal of the night comes courtesy of Jamaica's Je-Vaughn Watson. #URUvJAM https://t.co/LSpdtZ4r70
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 14, 2016
Contained here is the perfect microcosm of Jamaica’s Copa America experience. It was consistently miserable.
The Jamaicans also look increasingly likely to miss out on the final stage of World Cup qualifying. They’ll have to win away against Panama in September to have a good shot to qualify going into the final day.
International soccer can be especially cruel to fringe World Cup qualification contenders like Jamaica. They made the Hex in 2013 and the Gold Cup final in 2015, looking like a team on the rise. Then they lost some early round World Cup qualifiers. Wes Morgan showed up to Copa America unfit to start, and Rodolph Austin got a red card in the first half of their first game. They never recovered.
They’ll end the tournament in 15th place but probably put forward the weakest effort of everyone -- at least Haiti scored a goal. They’re unlikely to make the Hex. Morgan, their captain and best player, is 32, so he’ll probably never play for them at a major tournament again. Numerous other Jamaica starters are in their 30s and are probably in the same boat. A potentially great Jamaica team will now be disbanded and will mostly disappear from the spotlight for roughly five years, just as they were starting to get recognized for their progress.
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