An impressive Jamaica side beat Grenada 4-0 Monday night at the Home Depot Center while an unimpressive Honduras side could only manage a 0-0 draw against rival Guatemala.
Jamaica was simply too good for Grenada as they dominated the natch from the opening whistle, peppering the Grenadian goal with shots.
Led by Dane Richards and Ryan Johnson on the night, Jamaica broke through in the 21st minute when Luton Shelton flicked in a Rudolph Austin ball into the box that came off a short corner. The first goal served as the game winner but only started the Jamaican route.
Ryan Johnson, Delmar Phillips and Omar Delay tallied for the Reggae Boyz to complete the dominating win. With their display Monday Jamaica announced that they’ll be a presence in the Gold Cup and teams must be ready to contend with the Caribbean champion’s blazing speed.
In the other game, Honduras and Guatemala fought to a 0-0 draw by a feisty Guatemala squad. This was an extremely physical game as the Guatemala game plan seemed to be to kick a Honduras player at every available opportunity. As a result Guatemala finished the game with only 9 men, but despite the two man advantage the Hondurans were unable to really create any good goalscoring opportunities. Battling injuries to Wilson Palacios, Maynor Figueroa and Emilo Izaguirre the Catratchos failed to get into a flow offensively and the this was a poor game to watch.
With Honduras struggling and Jamaica impressing, the Reggae Boyz can take firm control of the group with a win over Guatemala Friday in Miami. Honduras will look to find their scoring touch against a weak Granada on the same day.
Group C opens play Tuesday night with the USA taking on Canada and Panama facing Guadeloupe in Detroit.
