Panama vs Jamaica
2018 World Cup Qualification
Estadio Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez. Saturday 3rd September
Kick Off: 08:30 UTC +7
Analysis of Panama
The home team is currently in the 2nd position, with 7 points won, after 2 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. In the penultimate round, they have tied an away match against Haiti by (0‑0). In the last round, they have won a home match against Haiti by (1‑0). In their last match, for the Friendlies, they got a home tie against Guatemala by (0‑0). In the last 10 home matches Panama has won 3, tied 2 and lost 5. They have presented defensive consistency, since they have only suffered goals in 1 of the last 4 matches, and their offense has scored frequently, since they have scored goals in 3 of the last 4 matches for this competition. They have conceded the first goal in 6 of their 15 matches, and have never been able to turn the score around. In the last 16 home matches for all competitions there is 1 period that stands out: they have scored 5 of their 14 goals between minutes (76'‑90').
Panama has one foot in the next stage and if they draw will already ensures there, but even so they know that winning at home is something essential. Being aware that Jamaica is a direct rival in the fight for qualification, they’ll try to impose their rhythm and to open advantage, for so, late in the match, they could be with the place guaranteed to the next level. In the last round they beat, at home, Haiti by 1-0.
Analysis of Jamaica
The away team is currently in the 3rd position, with 4 points won, after 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses. In the penultimate round, they have tied a home match against Costa Rica by (1‑1). In the last round, they have lost an away match against Costa Rica by (3‑0). In their last match, for the Copa America, they got an away loss against Uruguay by (3‑0). In the last 10 away matches Jamaica has won 5, tied 1 and lost 4. In 15 matches, they have conceded the first goal 8 times and have never been able to turn the score around.
Jamaica still has a chance to move forward to the next stage of the competition, but for that to happen they’ll need to beat Panama, mandatorily, despite having won in the last round and hope that the current opponent doesn’t win. The team knows that will match a great difficulty this time, but only victory matters to stay alive, so that either another result will be bad. In the last round they lost away home against Costa Rica by 3-0.
HEAD TO HEAD
Panama have a decent record against Jamaica having only lost twice in twelve games against the Reggae Boys. The pair last locked horns in November where the hosts Jamaica suffered a shock defeat, and handed a major advantage to Panama in the race to qualify from Group B. Cooper opened the scoring on the stroke of half time, the perfect moment to take the lead and the visitors built upon that advantage straight after the restart when forcing Leicester City centre back Wes Morgan to put the ball into the back of his own net. Te hosts looked disheartened and couldn’t find a way back into the game, and now they simply must win in Panama to keep their World Cup dreams alive.
Panama have W4-D6-L2 against Jamaica
PREDICTION
The hosts head into Saturday’s crunch game in slightly better form than Jamaica, but both teams have only managed to win one of their last six matches in all competitions. Panama won one and lost two of their three Copa America games, while Jamaica suffered defeats in all of their group games. The momentum is certainly with Panama ahead of this weekends match-up with Jamaica, and you get the feeling this game is the host’s to lose. Luis Tejada and Blas Pérez are both into their mid 30s now, but with over 200 caps and 83 goals between them they still offer a genuine threat and will surely cause problems for that Jamaica back line. The visitors biggest problem is a lack of goals from their strikers, which is a surprise because Clayton Donaldson has performed well in the Championship over the last few seasons and you’d have thought he would have taken well to international football. I’m backing Panama to win this game 1-0 or 2-0, as I just don’t think Jamaica have enough about them to cause a genuine threat to the hosts.
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