Price of failure: McClaren did the honourable thing

Head coach of Jamaica’s senior men’s football team, Englishman Steve McClaren, did the honourable thing and resigned, after failing to automatically qualify the team for the 2026 World Cup.

Handed the easiest opportunity as head coach for Jamaica to make the World Cup Finals, McClaren proved a colossal failure.

From jump-start, the Englishman never accorded the respect or commitment required to successfully lead a national programme, especially given his unfamiliarity with players and the country’s unique culture.

Yet he had time, having been appointed with an 18-month qualifying window.

McClaren could not settle on a team, making questionable selections and showing unproven faith in foreign-based recruits with instant playing time, even handing debuts to players up to the penultimate match.

He could not get Jamaica to orchestrate good football, their pattern of play characterised by long passes from the back, with very stingy influence or creativity from midfield. Tactical awareness of opposing teams proved lacking. And his decision-making in critical situations was poor.

The 2026 tournament is football showpiece’s biggest ever, with 48 teams, up from 2022’s 32. Being hosted by Concacaf opened six automatic qualifying spots for regional countries. This is three more automatic spots guaranteed to Concacaf.

Never before had this happened.

The Reggae Boyz never had to compete against Mexico and the United States, unquestionably the best Concacaf teams. Canada, as joint hosts, were also already assured.

Never before had long-established regional kingpins Jamaica been grouped to play for a World Cup spot in an all-Caribbean pot. All the countries Curaçao (82nd), Trinidad and Tobago (100th) and Bermuda (168th) are ranked lower.

Jamaica, who started out at 68th have now stumbled to 70th in the FIFA rankings.

Initial pronouncements by McClaren that he would not be living in Jamaica signalled lack of intent to work with local players, or their development. And so it played out, even while fleeting opportunities indicated rewards through greater playing time, and not token participation for those willing to spill their gut.

The same held true for locally born players in the squad, who now play professionally.

Shamar Nicholson, for instance, with the best present-day record in goalscoring – with 21 goals in 61 appearances – was excluded for crucial matches, even away in Trinidad for the penultimate showdown and with Jamaica leading the group. McClaren said he was preserving his best players (with Nicholson on a yellow card) for the final match.

Nicholson had also been excluded from a 60-man Gold Cup squad.

For the away Trinidad and Tobago match, Kaheim Dixon, who combined with Nicholson and Renaldo Cephas up front for Jamaica’s most exciting spell in the Group B quest, never made the starting 11, alongside Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards, who also shone in the previous match that they won 4-0.

The starting 11 reflected as many as six, and five changes, even while qualifying boiled down to its last four fixtures.

McClaren’s decision-making was further exacerbated when speedy Cephas, the team’s most dangerous player in Trinidad, scored, but was substituted five minutes later, as the Reggae Boyz fell back in defensive formation to a team with its back against the wall in need of a win to stay in contention. Eventually, Jamaica conceded in the 85th minute, for a 1-1 finish.

Critically, the draw enabled Jamaica to lose its front-running position to Curaçao, who duly thrashed Bermuda 7-0 to take group leadership on 11 points, one ahead of Jamaica heading into the final round.

McClaren, who also had his team sitting back in defence throughout the first half, admitted not being perturbed by the result.

“Many people have asked me what about the last game and I’ve said for 16 months, it will always go down to the last game. I said it at the beginning of the group stage and so it is,” he said in a press conference before the ultimate qualifier against Curaçao.

“I think the best thing for us is that it’s a win (that’s needed),” he admitted of the only secure result. “When you play for a draw or a win, you are a little bit in-between and I don’t think we can be in-between tomorrow.”

It was a grave miscalculation. And not a first by McClaren, whose coaching staff was spotted buying Moet and telling the cashier “we’re going to celebrate” after beating Curaçao and qualifying for the World Cup later, earlier in the afternoon at Loshusan supermarket in New Kingston.

For if the Reggae Boyz had won in Trinidad, a draw against Curaçao would suffice and the nation would not now be pondering its chances of surviving FIFA’s Intercontinental playoffs in March next year.

Victory in the do-or-die match against New Caledonia would setup a grand showdown against the Democratic Republic of Congo, with the winners advancing to the 2026 tournament.

Lack of familiarity

World Cup is the highest level of competition. Qualification requires, among other things, best available talent and understanding among players and coaches. Options for positions, squad duplication, personality/character fit, and player complement call for deep analysis and player resources.

But McClaren never invested time for those important variables, only showing up on the island for matches. His lack of familiarity reflected in wild selections.

He had expended time with the squad at the Unity Cup in England and summer’s Concacaf Gold Cup, which was shortened by their first-round exit.

Signs of the Englishman’s tactical acumen and knowledge of the opponents were brutally exposed in back-to-back contests against Guatemala, winning 3-0 one week in a Nations Cup fixture in Jamaica, then going down 1-0 the following week at the Gold Cup.

For the Nations League home fixture, Guatemala had eight of their starting players on the bench at National Stadium in the meaningless contest at Kingston, given that no result could not have affected their seeding for Concacaf’s World Cup draw days after. At the Gold Cup, the Central Americans duly inserted regulars and won 1-0.

Needing to win, Jamaica could not employ a different strategy against Curaçao, deploying the same 4-3-3 combination against a team that loaded its middle with six linkmen and one striker up top. And so the visitors dominated the first half with slick combinations that often ripped through the heart of Jamaica’s team.

Stares reflected nothingness, pure hope from a Jamaican crowd which rallied in arduous circumstances to support the nation’s final fling for the automatic placing.

They had taken a hit from Melissa. And another from the football organisers.

Hurricane Melissa ravaged the country, leaving a reported 45 people dead, hundreds homeless and without a roof, billions in damage, and many spectators were forced to sacrifice paying double to sit on the tough, old board seating in ‘premium bleachers’ for a football product that had doled out substandard play right throughout in the qualifiers.

As their hopelessness grew amid the goalless scoreline, for a fleeting moment they chanted “Whisper, Whisper, Whisper” for the player who had excited the masses and scored in the team’s last performance on that very stage, against Bermuda.

But McClaren, as ever, wouldn’t even fan that hope and seek a ‘lifter’. He sent out his trustworthy charges for the restart with his team woefully deficient and in need of creativity. And sure as morning follows night, they couldn’t deliver.

Dixon eventually came on, before the hour, then Bailey-Tye Cadamarteri, Jonathan Russell and eventually, the crowd did get its ‘Whisper’, with 12 minutes remaining till full time.

It was not to be Jamaica’s night.

Russell was unjustly sent off after picking up a very undeserved second yellow card.

Cadamarteri, along with Nicholson, had finishes coming back off the goal frame in a wild flurry at the end, even while McClaren failed to use his full quota of subs.

Whisper inspired Jamaica’s loudest cheer, going down in the box as the referee pointed to the penalty spot. VAR’s overturn killed that joy, ending McClaren-led Jamaican misery of failing to cap its easiest automatic World Cup qualifying opportunity.

Audley Boyd has covered international football since 1989. He formerly played in the National Premier League, representing Cavalier and Arnett Gardens football clubs.audley.boyd@gleanerjm.com