Jamaica at the FIFA World Cup

Summary

This is a record of Jamaica's results at the FIFA World Cup. The FIFA World Cup, sometimes called the Football World Cup or the Soccer World Cup, but usually referred to simply as the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The championship has been awarded every four years since the first tournament in 1930, except in 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.

The tournament consists of two parts, the qualification phase and the final phase (officially called the World Cup Finals). The qualification phase, which currently take place over the three years preceding the Finals, is used to determine which teams qualify for the Finals. The current format of the Finals involves 32 teams competing for the title, at venues within the host nation (or nations) over a period of about a month. The World Cup Finals is the most widely viewed sporting event in the world, with an estimated 715.1 million people watching the 2006 tournament final.[1]

Jamaica has qualified for the finals of the FIFA World Cup once with it happening in 1998 after they finished third in the final round of CONCACAF qualifying.[2][3] Although they beat Japan 2–1 in their third and final group game, two earlier defeats meant they failed to progress to the Round of 16.

Overview edit

Qualification record
Year Round Position Pld W D* L GF GA Squad Pld W D L GF GA
  1930 Did not enter Declined participation
  1934
  1938
  1950
  1954
  1958
  1962
  1966 Did not qualify 8 2 3 3 8 21
  1970 4 0 0 4 2 11
  1974 Withdrew Withdrew
  1978 Did not qualify 2 0 0 2 1 5
  1982 Did not enter Declined participation
  1986 Withdrew Withdrew
  1990 Did not qualify 4 2 1 1 4 6
  1994 8 2 3 3 9 11
  1998 Group stage 22nd 3 1 0 2 3 9 Squad 20 11 6 3 24 15
    2002 Did not qualify 16 6 2 8 14 18
  2006 8 2 5 1 11 6
  2010 8 5 1 2 19 6
  2014 16 3 6 7 14 19
  2018 8 2 1 5 6 21
  2022 14 2 5 7 12 22
      2026 To be determined To be determined
      2030
  2034
Total Group stage 1/25 3 1 0 2 3 9 116 37 33 46 124 161

1998 FIFA World Cup edit

In 1996, the Jamaican Football Federation hired Brazilian René Simões to take charge of the team.[4] After comfortably getting through the second round,[5] they finish top of their group in the third round to qualify through to the hexagon where the top three qualified through to the finals. A slow start in the finals saw the national team winless from the first four games of the final round. But 1–0 wins against El Salvador, Canada and Costa Rica gave the national team some hope with Deon Burton scoring the winning goal in two of those matches. After a 0–0 draw against Mexico, Jamaica secured their qualification with a 2–2 draw against El Salvador to make their first (and to date only) appearance at a World Cup with the following day being declared a national holiday.[6]

Squad edit

Head coach:   Renê Simões

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Club
1 1GK Warren Barrett (1970-07-09)9 July 1970 (aged 27) 128   Violet Kickers
2 2DF Stephen Malcolm (1970-05-02)2 May 1970 (aged 28) 62   Seba United
3 3MF Chris Dawes (1974-05-31)31 May 1974 (aged 24)   Galaxy
4 2DF Linval Dixon (1971-09-14)14 September 1971 (aged 26) 104   Hazard
5 2DF Ian Goodison (1972-11-21)21 November 1972 (aged 25) 55   Olympic Gardens
6 3MF Fitzroy Simpson (1970-02-26)26 February 1970 (aged 28) 23   Portsmouth
7 3MF Peter Cargill (1964-03-02)2 March 1964 (aged 34) 76   Harbour View
8 4FW Marcus Gayle (1970-09-27)27 September 1970 (aged 27) 5   Wimbledon
9 4FW Andy Williams (1977-09-23)23 September 1977 (aged 20) 25   Columbus Crew
10 4FW Walter Boyd (1972-01-01)1 January 1972 (aged 26) 57   Arnett Gardens
11 3MF Theodore Whitmore (1972-08-05)5 August 1972 (aged 25) 76   Seba United
12 2DF Dean Sewell (1972-04-13)13 April 1972 (aged 26) 4   Constant Spring
13 1GK Aaron Lawrence (1970-08-11)11 August 1970 (aged 27) 17   Reno
14 1GK Donovan Ricketts (1977-06-07)7 June 1977 (aged 21) 0   Wadadah
15 2DF Ricardo Gardner (1978-09-25)25 September 1978 (aged 19) 34   Harbour View
16 3MF Robbie Earle (1965-01-27)27 January 1965 (aged 33) 8   Wimbledon
17 4FW Onandi Lowe (1973-12-02)2 December 1973 (aged 24) 30   Harbour View
18 4FW Deon Burton (1976-10-25)25 October 1976 (aged 21) 18   Derby County
19 2DF Frank Sinclair (1971-12-03)3 December 1971 (aged 26) 5   Chelsea
20 3MF Darryl Powell (1971-11-15)15 November 1971 (aged 26) 2   Derby County
21 2DF Durrant Brown (1964-07-08)8 July 1964 (aged 33) 125   Wadadah
22 4FW Paul Hall (1972-07-03)3 July 1972 (aged 25) 23   Portsmouth

Group H table edit

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1   Argentina 3 3 0 0 7 0 +7 9 Advance to knockout stage
2   Croatia 3 2 0 1 4 2 +2 6
3   Jamaica 3 1 0 2 3 9 −6 3
4   Japan 3 0 0 3 1 4 −3 0
Source: FIFA

Jamaica vs. Croatia edit

Jamaica  1–3  Croatia
Arshadi   45' (Report) Stanić   27'
Prosinečki   53'
Šuker   69'

Argentina vs Jamaica edit

Argentina  5–0  Jamaica
Ortega   31', 55'
Batistuta   72', 80', 82' (pen.)
Report
Attendance: 45,000

Japan vs Jamaica edit

Japan  1–2  Jamaica
Nakayama   74' Report Whitmore   39', 54'
Attendance: 39,100

Record players edit

Nine players have been fielded in all three of Jamaica's FIFA World Cup matches, making them record World Cup players for their country:

Rank Player Matches
1 Walter Boyd 3
Deon Burton 3
Robbie Earle 3
Ricardo Gardner 3
Ian Goodison 3
Paul Hall 3
Fitzroy Simpson 3
Frank Sinclair 3
Theodore Whitmore 3

Top goalscorers edit

The two goals scored by Theodore Whitmore during Jamaica's only World Cup win, their 2–1 over Japan, make him Jamaica's record scorer at World Cup tournaments.

Rank Player Goals World Cups
1 Theodore Whitmore 2 1998
2 Robbie Earle 1 1998

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ 2006 FIFA World Cup TV Coverage Archived June 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine (PDF), FIFA.com. Retrieved on June 6, 2007.
  2. ^ "Remembering Jamaica at France '98: media darlings, history-makers and more than just the 'Reggae Boyz'". Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  3. ^ "The unlikely journey of Jamaica to France 98". 6 July 2017. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  4. ^ Tortello, Rebecca. "A fascination with football". Jamaica Glenaer. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2019.
  5. ^ "1998 FIFA World Cup France ™ Preliminaries". FIFA. Archived from the original on 31 December 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2019.
  6. ^ O'Callaghan, Eoin (15 June 2018). "World Cup 2018: How history-making Jamaica became more than just the 'Reggae Boyz' at France 1998". The Independent. Archived from the original on 15 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2019.