Post Match Press Conference - Jamaica vs USA

good evening, we start with a

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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 in the second half we played better in defense than in the first half, so we were more like a unit defended together with the best moves on defense USA had more ball but we were fine with that because there were openings that we were going to use, but I think in general soccer is about momentum, we started the game very well, we created some good chances they scored the goal at At the beginning of the game they got a penalty in the 30th minute or something and you know that at 2-0 the game would have been totally different instead it was always this goal and you slowly start to protect it.

A lead of zero and like I said there was probably more energy at this stage of the tournament on the US team than we were, but we'll surely grow in that area as the tournament goes on so I'm not worried, I knew that. . this game would be yeah, having us in the first game was always going to be tough, but especially when you think about the energy, sorry, I didn't even do that. Your response was how disappointed I am, of course I am. It was very close, uh. Of course you're disappointed when you're this close, but I respect you because they're the top-ranked team in the country and the history between these teams is totally different.

I think they have like 80 wins against 20 of us. One more question, coach, um, would you have had your game plan going into this game, uh, completely effective, you thought your game plan was going to last 90 minutes, I think it did, it worked very well in the first half, so we. I wanted to attack them at the start just to turn it on, so we did, we had some good moments of

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ure, we won the ball high up the pitch, we created some good chances, the downside of doing that, we were a bit open. and Blakey made two, three, really two.

I think two good saves in the first half just because we tried to push really high and the level space is behind us so as always there are always risks when you have a game plan but this. 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 get a little more defensive mentality, but I think I'll learn from this game, I think it will grow from this game, I'm sure the same thing has been said, the players are just coming in, so I think both as a team and in terms of fitness, I think we will grow as the tournament progresses.

Okay, 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 of the Region from Comcast 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 is us. We're not sending a message, we just come here to try to do our best to improve our trips.

It kind of has a point in 2026, so we're going to improve until 2026. Um, and I often say that. 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, what he did better in this game than me. 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, the way he played today so yeah, back him as they say . in Jamaica androgens you can ask your question and now once again he was brilliant tonight in what he says, he just talked about your time working with Andre or anything, we can go and so on working at Andre Place, yeah, I think it is, Above all, 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 technical goalkeeper.

I think today he showed how good he is at reading the game, stopping shots before they almost happen, reaction, quick reaction, so he did it. Yeah. I think he probably made three brilliant saves today, so I can't congratulate him enough. I said that what I admire most is his personality and Dania's professionalism. You know you asked your question about the problems that um in the tournament since the Republican pre-coup even though he said the defensive performance better in the second those reds. There are some plans for the games against Trinidad and Saint Kitts, yes if you start in defence, I never see the defense as the back four, the team defends as a unit and I would like that, so I think it was a good defensive performance .

Today was that not only were the defenders playing well but also the team in front of them, how we closed down certain spaces and made it difficult for the United States to create and play through us, so I think in that sense we changed faster. We pressed faster, we anticipated 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 that you were. speaking of what I mentioned in the previous games they were not 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 that we knew that Antonio needed to do it. salt so yeah it was always kind of risky to make the changes so early because there were some tired legs that you don't want to you don't want to finish the three changes or the windows uh when there's 10 or 15 minutes left and you have tired legs on the field and you don't want to play one man less 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 stopped, but we are.

Looking back, 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 field, so we wanted to make double or triple. change when necessary William, hello everyone, you can ask your question, please don't enter the game, enter the game, uh, the plan was to respect the point we had at the beginning, so I can't be unhappy now despite which we conceded in the end so respecting 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 so I'm repeating myself a little bit.

Changes in the second half, I just emphasized making things, especially the 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 field. We hurt them more than 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. I just finished the press.

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and good evening everyone