Burke, Flemmings delighted to open Gold Cup scoring accounts
ORLANDO, USA — When Junior Flemmings woke up on Friday morning, little did he know what was in store for him later in the day.
As it turned out, he became the unrivalled hero for the Reggae Boyz when he scored very late in the contest to give the team a 2-1 victory over Guadeloupe in their Group C Concacaf Gold Cup match.
Flemmings’ 87th-minute goal followed a fourth-minute Amari’i Bell own goal and Cory Burke’s equalising beauty in minute 14.
Friday night’s victory catapulted Jamaica into the quarter-finals of the tournament, along with Costa Rica, with both ending the workday at Exploria Stadium with six points each.
The Central Americans, in the second match of Friday night’s double-header, registered an identical 2-1 triumph over Suriname.
In previous games, Jamaica had defeated Suriname 2-0, while Costa Rica chiselled a 3-1 scoreline over Guadeloupe.
Both Guadeloupe and Suriname, without a point, have been eliminated from the tournament. They will meet each other on Tuesday to salvage pride.
The Boyz and Costa Rica will, meantime, battle each other for group honours, also on Tuesday.
Flemmings, the 25-year-old
Birmingham Legion striker, delighted in his first Gold Cup goal.
“This is a great feeling, especially for me, to score a goal of this magnitude and in this competition that gets us to the next level, which could definitely decide our future in this competition.
“So, this is huge not only for me, but my teammates, staff, and everyone who is on board,” he said.
Flemmings’ goal was more of an individual nature, having dispatched three Guadeloupe defenders with relative ease before firing between the legs of goalkeeper Yohann Thuram with the left foot.
“Before [the goal] I got an opportunity and fired, but a few defenders blocked it, but
I made up my mind that the next one I got I was going to fake and as you saw, there were like three players and I got by them, cut the ball in, and then put it on my left and just finished,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
The former Phoenix Rising star said when he realised that the coach was going to put him into the game, he immediately started processing his role in a match that was deadlocked at 1-1.
“I know I was going to go in, so mentally I was just preparing myself. I knew I was going to get an opportunity [to score], because as you saw in the last game [against Suriname], I did get a chance, but that was like a rush of blood having just come into the game,” Flemmings noted.
Not to take anything away from the occasion, the former Tivoli Gardens FC man said rising to big occasions is a trademark of his portfolio as a player.
“I am used to stepping up and performing in big moments from my Manning Cup days, Premier League days, and even for my clubs overseas.
“So it’s nothing new to me. So now I just want to keep going and work hard,” he stated.
Flemmings, who also had a stint with New York Red Bulls 11, said Coach Theodore Whitmore’s instruction to him, prior to going on for Michael Hector, was direct.
“The coach’s instruction was to go on and try and make a difference as we knew when they scored, they were going to sit back, and he [coach] told me to go at them, and that we could choose the moment when to go one on one and when to combine. And, I had made up my mind that once I got it in and around the box, I am going to shoot,” he recalled.
Flemmings, who excelled at football at schoolboy level for Jamaica College, said coming to the Gold Cup, one of his goals was to end his goal drought in the tournament.
“This has been a competition I haven’t scored in, and this is my second time participating, so my goal was to come and get a couple of goals and try to set some standards for myself, and I think tonight [last night] was the starting point,” he reasoned.
Flemmings said he is already looking forward to the Costa Rica matchup on Tuesday.
“We just have to regroup and come again as the last game was not a pretty one, but we found a way to win and that’s the most important thing.
“We have to now take the positives from the last game and build on it and come ready for a good Costa Rica team that is well oiled and ready to go,” he noted.
With regards to the team’s ambition of lifting the Gold Cup trophy this time around, Flemmings said it will take more than talk and desire.
“When you look at quality and talent, we have it, but what I think we must do is basically double up on the work ethic, the mentality and the right attitude.
“Every team knows the quality of the players we have and so everybody is coming after Jamaica and wants to be the one to say that they knocked Jamaica out, so we have to step it up a notch and raise our level if we want to be champions,” Flemmings said.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s other goalscorer on the night, Burke, said it was “special” to score his first Gold Cup goal.
“Whenever I score a goal, it is always a special moment, but this one is my first in the tournament after two Gold Cups, so I have to just build on this and try and score more goals,” said the Philadelphia Union star.
Looking back at the overall game, Burke saluted the fight the team exhibited in coming back from a goal down to win.
“We went down to a goal pretty early and we tried our best to get back into the game and we pushed, where we created a few chances.
“For my goal, I got a chance at the top of the 18 [yard box] and did well in putting it into the far corner,” he said.