With the final round of the Concacaf World Cup qualifiers 10 months away, Jamaica’s national senior defender Damion Lowe believes that 25 points should be enough to take the Reggae Boyz to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The final round is scheduled for next June with the qualifying format revised to an eight-team tournament featuring the top five countries in the region, with the last three spots determined among the other nations in the first and second rounds.
Jamaica will play a total of 14 games because of the new structure, the most that the team has played in a final round campaign.
The 27-year-old, who is currently finalising an agreement to play for a new club, thinks that given the strength of the finalists, 25 points could be good enough to secure qualification.
“If we win eight or nine (games) out of that (fourteen), I think we should be good,” Lowe told STAR Sports “But everyone is playing well and teams are getting good so i feel like points are going to be stolen and points are going to be gained from other teams.”
Difficult opening stretch
Jamaica, however, will have to navigate a difficult opening stretch with five of the first seven games being road assignments which include, Mexico, USA, Costa Rica and Honduras.
However, Lowe believes that the schedule does offer them the chance to strategically organise how to approach the opening games. He has confidence in being able capitalise on their home advantage in the latter part of the tournament with five of the last seven games being played at home.
“I feel like everything has been laid out perfect because would you rather go to Azteca [stadium] on the last day [of the tournament]?” he said. “I feel like it’s good to play away games first so we can plan everything, get a point here, squeeze some wins [here]. Then we know that we have seven home games and if we can win at least five out of them [we] will be good.”
The first round of the qualifiers are scheduled to begin in October.
The Jamaica Star
