Heimir Hallgrímsson Usmnt vs Reggae Boyz | Usa vs Jamaica | Concacaf Press Conference Gold Cup

good evening, we start with a

press

conference

for the Jamaican national team, coach Hamer Henderson, so you have a question you can answer for your coach, two competitive games in charge and I'm sure you have mixed feelings, the first one you were you. I know India struck twice against Mexico and today you know they conceded from a winning position, so in isolation two pretty good results against the two best teams in Concacaf, but do you see it that way or do you see it more as a Lost opportunity? Well, I think looking at it after the game it's two points lost.

You feel that way when you have victory in hindsight. I think the draw was fair though, so we can't complain. We said before the game that the point would be good. result for us in a first game in a competition like this, it is important that you do not lose because then the second game will be a game of life or death, so yes, the feeling is that now there are too many points lost, but to be fair, I think both. in Mexico and this one, although we could have and should have had maybe one, a draw is a fair result and I have to admit, and I want to give credit to the USA, there was a lot of energy in their team, I think that was where they had the advantage.

They are in season. A young and energetic team. Many of our players are coming off their offseason, so I knew this game would be tough. But I'm very glad I got out of this without. injuries and I know we will grow as we progress in the competition, so I'm pretty happy. In the end, tomorrow I will be quite happy. I think I will be happier than now. More questions Hello coach John Arlo ESPN wanted to ask me about Gray. You mentioned before the game that you were going to tell us if he was going to start or not.

He can be a starter. He contributes almost immediately. What did you see about him in the few training sessions he had that made you think he would be a good player? player to put in the starting lineup and you have to also imagine that the chemistry will only grow from here, yes, exactly, and that's what we think we put them in, we can always take him out if he doesn't fit. but we've seen him for a long time talking to him, so he knew what we wanted and we knew what type of player he is, so I think in the end there was no risk in playing with him, but I think everyone can see that.

Well done, he will give us a lot, he will give us an extra dimension, a Leon Bailey-like player, so, yeah, I think he just increases the quality of our options as well as the quality. More questions, Robert. Williams irfm coach of Jamaica, how disappointed are you, based on the last two games while you were in the driver's seat and then you conceded and didn't come out victorious, no, it doesn't matter what happened in the past and it doesn't matter what happened in the friendlies . When you come to a tournament you would like to win and, of course, it hurts you to concede goals in the last minutes because I think that in the second half we played better defense than in the first half, so we were more.

As a defended unit along with the best movements in defense, the US had more possession of the ball, but we were fine with that because there were openings that we were going to use, but I think in general football is about momentum, one we started the I play very good. I created some good opportunities. I scored the goal at the beginning of the game. They penalized me in the 30th minute or something like that. You know that with 2-0 the game would have been totally different. Instead, it was always this goal and you slowly start to protect that one-zero lead and, like I said, there was probably more energy at this stage of the tournament on the US team than we did, but we'll grow in that area for sure. as the tournament progresses, so I'm not worried.

I knew this game was going to be yeah, having us in the first game was always going to be tough, but especially when you think about the energy, I'm sorry, I didn't even do that. Your response was how disappointed I am, of course I am. It was so close uh of course you're disappointed when you're that close, but I respect you because they're the top ranked team in the nation and the history between these teams is totally different. I think they have like 80 wins to Us's 20, one more question coach, would you have had your game plan going into this game.

Totally effective, you thought your game plan was going to last 90 minutes. I think it was like that. It worked really well in the first half, so. We wanted to attack them at first just to activate ourselves, so we did. We had some good moments of

press

ure. We won the ball at the top of the field. We created some good opportunities. The negative side of doing it. We went a little. a little open and Blakey made two, three, really two. I think two good saves in the first half just because we tried to press very high and the level space is behind us, so as always there are always risks when you have a game plan. but our game plan was to start very high and then see what happens and after we score, it becomes automatic, especially since we didn't get that 2-0 goal, people start to have a little more defensive mentality, but I think We will learn from this game.

I think he will grow from this game. The same thing has surely been said. The players are just arriving, so I think both as a team and in terms of physical condition, I think we will grow as a tournament. progressing a lot well, okay, moving on to the next questions, José Armando Rodríguez, can you ask your question for yourself, the first one I saw and do you think you sent the message with the performance that you are here to compete with the rest? from the Comcast region and um and second, I want to ask you about cable Lambert, a player for the UFO Championship here Phoenix Rising, what did you see for me playing at this level?

Thanks, no, it's you, the press that would make the headlines. We're not sending a message, we just come here to try to do our best to improve our trips. It has kind of a point in 2026, so we're going to improve until 2026. Um and I often. Say success is not destiny. I hope we continue to grow after 2026. Because success is a journey without a destination, so it's just about continuing to improve. Kevin, yes, I know what he can do and what he did best in this game. From what I had seen him before, he was more aggressive, started slowly, a little too casual, we talked before half time, he got better as the game went on, so I'm very happy with Kevin, how he played today, so yeah, get it back. they say in Jamaica androgens you can ask your question and now once again he was brilliant tonight what he says he just talked about your time working with Andre or whatever we can go and stuff work at Andre Place yeah I think he is the first and most important thing. a good person and a fantastic personality as a player and as a professional, he is demanding both with himself and with his teammates and it is good to have players like that around us who will push others as a coach. goalkeeper, I think today he showed how good he is at reading the game, running and stopping shots before they almost happen, reaction, quick reaction, so he did, yeah, I think he probably made three brilliant saves today, so I can't congratulate them enough. and as I said what I admire most is his personality and his professionalism Dania, you know you asked your question about the problems that um in the tournament since the Republican pre-coup even though he said that the defensive performance was better in the second Those red plans are a shortly before the games against Trinidad and Saint Kitts, yes, if you start in defense, I never see the defense as the back four, the team defends as a unit and I would like that, so I think that is what made it good .

The defensive performance today was that not only were the defenders playing well but also the team in front of them, how we closed certain spaces and made it difficult for the US to create and play through us, so I think in that sense we changed faster we press faster we anticipate the past better in the second half than in the first half and I think we would and I hope we improve because we need to improve these things in the future and the flow You were talking about what I mentioned in the previous games, no they were individually, individuals were not singled out on defense, it was defending us as a unit and as a whole um in regards to the changes that we needed to change Amari and we knew we knew Antonio.

He needed to get out, so yeah, it was always kind of risky to make the shifts so early because there were some tired legs that you don't want to, you don't want to finish the three shifts or the windows, uh, with 10 or 15 minutes left. and you have some tired legs on the field and you don't want to play a man down against us, so we try to be in constant communication with the players if they are okay, if they can play, etc., when the game was stopped, but we are looking back and during the game we were talking about making changes but it was risky to make the last change too early because there were too many tired legs on the pitch so we wanted to make a double or triple change when necessary William, hello everyone , you can ask your question, please don't enter the game, uh, the plan was to respect the point we had at the beginning, so I can't be unhappy now, although in the end we conceded, so respect that was our plan, like I said before.

We wanted to start pressing High and start on the front foot and then we scored this goal and then we started protecting it too much. I'm repeating myself a little bit, changes in the second half, just emphasizing doing things, especially offensive moves, faster to play more on the field because I thought we heard them when we played on the field and when we played fast. On the ground we hurt them more than with longbows, so we talked about playing faster on the ground, not in the air, so just adjustments here and there, so that was the halftime talk.

Thank you very much for the time that just ended. the press

conference

and good evening everyone