Uruguay 1-0 Jamaica: Rodríguez goal the difference for uninspiring Uruguay

Uruguay kicked off their Copa America journey with a narrow victory over Jamaica, thanks to a goal from Cristian Rodríguez.

The game began timidly as both sides failed to string together any prolonged periods of dominance. Edinson Cavani’s threat was clear inside the opening 20 minutes, with him stretching the Jamaican defence on numerous occasions, but he was unable to get a shot off for the most part.

The first test for either goalkeeper came in the 37th minute, Rodríguez turned brilliantly on the edge of the box, before squeezing a shot towards goal that Duwayne Kerr turned around the post.

This triggered a flurry of chances in the game. Darren Mattocks did fantastically to avoid three challenges, but failed to connect with the ball properly as he bore down on goal. Just a minute later Cavani controlled a first time ball to take him in on goal, however, he fell too easily under a challenge and the referee signaled play on.

The final chance of a dull first half again fell to Cavani, Nicolás Lodeiro lifted a neat ball in to Maxi Pereira, he then cut the ball across to El Matador who failed to direct his scissor kick on target.

The second half desperately needed an increase in tempo to make it a spectacle and that’s exactly what viewers got.

After just five minutes of the second half, Diego Rolán was taken down by Reading’s Michael Hector.

Lodeiro took the resulting set-piece and placed in square on the head of José Giménez, nodding down to the feet of Atlético Madrid team-mate Rodríguez, affectionately dubbed ‘the Onion’, who tucked the ball into the far corner.

Uruguay controlled the half but it was Jamaica looking the most dangerous.

Giles Barnes missed two fantastic opportunities, the first an open goal from 20 yards as Uruguay failed to clear a long ball former Leeds midfielder Rudolph Austin, before heading wide inside the box as Lance Laing curled in an accurate cross.

Laing again whipped in a perfect cross but substitute Deshorn Brown saw his flicked header go a-begging. Jamaica’s tactics were clear but Uruguay couldn’t handle them, unfortunately for the Reggae Boyz they lacked direction when it came to finding the back of the net.

Jamaica continued to create chances by exploiting set-pieces, Kemar Lawrence saw his free kick tipped over by Fernando Muslera and then Laing lifted his effort over the top from a Lawrence corner.

With two minutes left on the clock, Rolán forced his way through on goal, his shot rebounded out to Espanyol’s Christian Stuani, but the Uruguayan wasted a fantastic opportunity, lashing his shot into the ground and bouncing over the top of Kerr’s goal.

Jamaica caused Uruguay a number of scares and on another day it could’ve been a very different story. La Celeste need to tighten up at the back going into their tie against Argentina on Wednesday, while Winnie Schäfer’s side will be greatly encouraged by today’s match ahead of a crucial game against Paraguay in three days time.

Uruguay: Muslera; M. Pereira, Giménez, Godín, A. Pereira; Sánchez (Stuani), A. Rios, Lodeiro (González), Rodríguez (Arrascaeta); Rolán, Cavani

Jamaica: Kerr, Hector, Morgan, Lawrence, Mariappa, Austin, McAnuff, McCleary, Dawkins (Laing), Barnes, Mattocks (Brown)

Booked: McAnuff, Giménez, Godin

Goalscorers: Rodríguez

Man of the Match: Cristian Rodríguez. The ex-Porto winger stood out as the most influential man on the pitch, scoring the decisive goal and looking a threat on a number of occasions.


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