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Jamaica melted down without Wes Morgan, then played composed with him

What if Wes Morgan had played 90 minutes?

By Pardeep Cattry
John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports

Jamaica had been tapped as the surprise team to watch in a competitive Group C at this year's Copa América Centenario, but they managed to lose 1-0 to the worst team in CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifying, Venezuela. Their first 40 minutes were disastrous.

The Reggae Boyz started the match without Wes Morgan, captain of the newly crowned Premier League champions Leicester City, as he was busy partying in England and Thailand before joining Jamaica's camp last week. Things did not get much better once the match began.

Jamaica had multiple chances to begin the match, but it was Venezuela's Josef Martinez who opened up the scoring, shooting from a wide position to get past Andre Blake.

From there, Jamaica basically imploded.

Defender Michael Hector, who managed an awful first 15 minutes between giving the ball away for the goal and failing to win possession every time he challenged for it, also managed a yellow card in the 20th minute. He was spared by referee Victor Carrillo and managed not to get a second yellow card on a foul a couple of minutes later.

The implosion was complete in the 24th minute, when midfielder Rodolph Austin committed a studs-up tackle on Tomás Rincón after getting the ball and was promptly sent off.

Morgan finally came on in the 40th minute for Kemar Lawrence, who suffered an injury. Jamaica managed to play better with Morgan, who had not trained in a week, but could not overcome their earlier difficulties -- or even keep their coach on the touchline, as Winfried Schäfer was sent to the stands at halftime. Their improvement with Morgan on the pitch left everyone to wonder what might have been had he played the entire match.

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