Jamaica toughed out a 0-0 draw with Costa Rica in an international friendly on Wednesday night in Kingston despite Jermaine Taylor's 37th-minute ejection.
The Houston Dynamo defender (pictured above), sporting the armband for the Reggae Boyz, was cautioned twice in as many minutes and was duly given his marching orders. But his side ground out the result after a constant barrage of pressure from the Costa Ricans, who couldn’t make the one-man advantage count.
Taylor's Houston teammate Je-Vaughn Watson played 67 minutes for Jamaica, while Philadelphia's Porfirio López went the distance for los Ticos in central defense, helping his national team stretch its uneaten run to five games.
The draw also marked four games unbeaten for the Reggae Boyz after a recent win against New Zealand and consecutive victories against Cuba. The solid defensive display also led to Jamaica's third shutout in their last four outings.
Costa Rica's defensive play is proving just as impressive, with López at the heart of it, as the shutout was their third straight after recording 2-0 and 1-0 against Venezuela and Wales, respectively.
Jamaica next host Panama in a friendly on May 27 at the National Stadium before opening 2014 World Cup qualifying on June 8 in the same group as the US. Costa Rica, meanwhile, host Honduras in a friendly in San José on April 11, then have a pair of friendlies against Guatemala before their World Cup qualifying campaign kicks off in the same group as Mexico.
