Marlon King's first-half double led Jamaica's Reggae Boyz to a historic away victory over El Salvador in their Group One semi-final round World Cup qualifying encounter in San Salvador last night.
By Audley BoydThe astounding win, which saw most of the home town supporters leaving the stadium long before the final whistle, was Jamaica's first ever in Central America and lifted the Boyz back in contention in the CONCACAF series.
King scored at the third and 38th minutes, while Hyde increased Jamaica's advantage at the 39th of a defining first half in an encounter crucial to both teams' hopes.
Jamaica started the game at the bottom of the four-team group with a point, trailing Panama and El Salvador on three and leaders United States on four points.
Victory, however, significantly transformed their position, moving the Reggae Boyz to second on four points, the same as Panama who surprisingly drew 1-1 in the United States with the Americans, who stayed out front while moving to five points.
USA EQUALISE
In that game, Panama led 1-0 off Roberto Brown's 71st minute goal until the dying moments when the play-to-the-whistle United States equalised through veteran Cobi Jones at the 90th.
Jamaica, with their backs against the wall, started with their most attacking formation ? 4-3-3 ? with King, Damani Ralph and Ricardo Fuller up front and got paid with their first win of the semi-final series.
King got the ball rolling by finishing off a good right-sided movement by the uncontrollable Ricardo Fuller with a superb finish.
After dribbling the entire half on the right flank, Fuller went between two players then cut back a grounded pass to King at the top of the penalty spot. With a defender in his back and his face away from goal, King turned beautifully to his right and unleashed a ferocious shot that flew into the 'pigeon hole'.
Like Panama in their shock win over Jamaica at the 'Office' on Saturday, the early goal stunned the home crowd.
The Boyz, however, were not overawed and continued to play positive, attacking football and dominated the homesters in every department despite the loss of key central defender, Claude Davis, who was forced out of the game at the 15th minute with an injury from a tackle near the touch line.
It called for some reshuffling with Craig Ziadie brought in to fill the void and Tyrone Marshall switched to the centre of defence.
NEVER MISSED A BEAT
Despite the changes, the Jamaicans never missed a beat and were always the better and more dangerous team going forward. In defence, they were solid too, not allowing the El Salvador team any room as they prevented the homesters from creating a single open chance in the first half.
Jamaica, though, threatened to score several times with King going closest by firing against the crossbar at the 25th minute, after receiving a pass from Marshall.
Fuller also had shots on goal from the top of the area but both, just inside the half hour, were off target. Minutes later, King went down inside the box but had a shout for a penalty disallowed.
Soon though, the ominous signs would come clearly into view as the Jamaicans were rewarded with a goal.
The initial play started with Fuller firing a chance against the goalie to effect a corner.
From that kick, Ricardo Gardner swerved a cross near to the back post and Nottingham Forest striker King, in typical English fashion, slid in to score Jamaica's second goal and his sixth in the qualifiers.
NAIL IN THE COFFIN
Before the celebrations subsided, Jamaica drove another nail in their opponent's coffin when the El Salvador goalie parried a powerful shot from Damani Ralph at the top of the area into the path of Hyde, who fired in a cracking goal off an angle to make the score 3-0 with the game's ultimate conversion.
The homesters came out firing and got two chances to score in the first 10 minutes, only to be thwarted by brilliant saves from Jamaica's goalie, Donovan Ricketts.
The Salvadoreans, however, couldn't maintain the momentum despite Jamaica tiring and taking too long to introduce fresh legs.
Just like the first half, El Salvador could not force any additional openings against a taller and effective Jamaican defence that never allowed an open chance in the first half.
If anything, it was Jamaica which went closest to scoring when Fuller had what seemed a legitimate headed goal off Gardner's corner disallowed near the hour mark.
