Oribe Peralta provided the dagger with a goal in the 81st minute on his first shot of the game after coming off the bench.
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“However, Mexico did dominate the flow of the game, and Jamaica would pay in the 18th minute when Jesus Manuel Corona had time and space inside the box to locate Javier Hernandez, and Chicarito used every inch of his 5′ 9” frame to redirect a header to the far corner that keeper Andre Blake could onto parry into the net.
But the match was mired in controversy as Jamaica were denied a spot-kick and a chance to equalize in the second half after striker Clayton Donaldson looked to have been fouled in the area. The substitution proved fortuitous with the Club America striker doubling the Mexican lead within three minutes of his introduction.
Leicester City’s Premier League-winning captain Wes Morgan returned to the starting line-up after being a substitute in Jamaica’s 1-0 loss to Venezuela, replacing Kemar Lawrence, while Lee Williamson was named in place of suspended midfielder Rodolph Austin.
He added: “All players must know what we have to do against Mexico and we have to come back to positive thinking”.
Mexico began turning the screw, attacking in waves but couldn’t find a way through and were caught on the break on 60 minutes when Donaldson took the ball around a defender only to be cut down by Yasser Corona.
Backed by overwhelmingly pro-Mexico crowds everywhere it plays, El Tri arguably enjoys even more of a home team advantage than tournament host United States. “That fighter who never gives up, who may go down, but gets up again”.
By virtue of Venezuela’s upset of Uruguay earlier in the day, both Mexico and Venezuela are sitting on six points having won their first two Group C matches.
Mexico delivered a strong late second half performance to beat Uruguay 3-1 in their tournament opener, and will join secure passage into the quarterfinals with a victory on Thursday night.
“The players always believed in themselves”, Dudamel said. “We had chances. Obviously penalties change games, but we had chances to score and we didn’t capitalize on them today. And all of them said “yes”, without any hesitation”.
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Luis Suarez missed his second consecutive game for Uruguay with a hamstring injury.
