WIENER NEUSTADT, Austria, CMC – Swansea City forward Jamal Lowe scored on debut but Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz suffered a thrashing at the hands of CONCACAF powerhouses United States, going down 4-1 in an international friendly here Thursday.
Playing at the Teddybären and Plüsch-Stadion just south of the country’s capital Vienna, Jamaica found themselves down 1-0 at the half through a strike from Barcelona’s Sergiño Dest just past the half-hour mark.
Brenden Aaronson doubled the lead for the Americans minutes after the resumption and even though Lowe’s 70th minute goal halved the advantage, Sebastian Lletget struck twice in eight minutes at the end to put the game to bed.
“I think we were okay up to 60, 65 minutes. We created chances,” head coach Theodore Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer afterwards.
“[However] you could see that the chemistry wasn’t there, the cohesiveness [was lacking], [there were] a lot of turnovers. But again, a team with only two games together, I thought they did well.”
The Americans dominated the contest with 70 per cent of the possession while registering eight shots on goal to Jamaica’s three.
And it was one of those shots which handed the US the lead in the 34th minute, Dest allowed an unimpeded run down the left before cutting inside, taking advantage of loose defending to curl a brilliant right-footed volley into the upper left-hand corner from 18 yards.
Jamaica prevented US increasing their advantage before half-time but seven minutes after the break, Werder Bremen midfielder Josh Sargent turned UK-based centre back Ethan Pinnock on the left-side of the 15-yard box and released substitute Aaronson for the Red Bull Salzburg forward to beat 20-year-old goalkeeper Jeadine White low to his left.
The 26-year-old Lowe, who played for the likes of Portsmouth and Wigan Athletic before signing a three-year contract last August with Swansea, then celebrated his international debut with a well executed finish.
Watford’s Andre Gray slipped a ball through from the edge of the 15-yard box and Lowe ran on to the end of it before clipping the finish over goalkeeper Zack Steffen.
The goal appeared to invigorate the Caribbean side, leaving the game an open affair especially as the scoreline remained close heading into the last 10 minutes.
Instead of finding an equaliser, however, Jamaica conceded, Nicholas Gioacchini driving down the right and squaring a pass for Lletget who capitalised on shambolic defending to stroke into the nets from the top of the box.
The LA Galaxy frontman was on target again just minutes later, scoring a near identical goal this time from just inside the box, after being set up from the right by Luca de la Torre’s squared pass.