IT was oh so close.

That close; where a decent result is being viewed with disappointment.

"To be leading Argentina 1-0 up to the 85th minute and to come back and lose, I'm somewhat disappointed," said Theodore Whitmore, Jamaica's coach.

And you couldn't blame him.

World football powerhouse Argentina scored two goals in the last eight minutes, to win 2-1 and deny Jamaica what would have been a historic and stupendous victory, in their friendly international for the Copa Loteria de la Provincia de Burnos Aires (Buenos Aires Lottery Trophy) at the Jose Marilla Minella Stadium in Mar Del Plata, Argentina, last night.

Ryan Johnson gave the Reggae Boyz the lead, scoring a well-placed header from the edge of the penalty box, shortly after the interval at the 47th minute.

With only four minutes remaining, Martin Palermo went low to score the equaliser for Argentina, glancing a header from the edge of the penalty box with good enough pace to beat goalkeeper Dwayne Miller, as it bounced and skidded inside the far post.

goalmouth scramble

Then, in the final seconds of four added minutes, substitute Ignacio Canuto blasted in the winning goal from close following a big goalmouth scramble, to give the Argentine team and fans, who had packed the near 40,000 capacity stadium, the goal they craved, after they were gifted a free kick close to the corner flag.

On that play, defender Jermaine Taylor was called for a foul as he shielded the ball, then turned to clear. The Argentina player challenging him from behind fell to the ground as Taylor spun to kick the ball.

Jamaica fought hard and in the end, they were left to rue as they deserved better for a spirited performance, which saw them launching some useful attacks, until the final 20 minutes when virtually all members of their offensive team, Johnson, Omar Cummings, Navion Boyd and Keammar Daley, were substituted.

The referee's call that led to the game-winner was one of several questionable calls that went against the Jamaicans, in the last quarter hour when they held a score that threatened to embar**** the mighty Argentineans, two-time World Cup winners who are ranked number eight by FIFA.

But with history beckoning, Jamaica, lowly ranked at 78th, may have been better served trying to embrace the occasion than providing the opportunity for international practice, for which the game was designed.

By then, Diego Maradona's Argentina team was pouring on the pressure as Jamaica fell fully into defensive mode, blasting the ball out of defence to turnover possession as they dipped early for the wire.

last 25 minutes

Even before those dying stages though, their game had gone into rapid decline with a series of substitutions in the last 25 minutes.

The substitution that probably hurt the team the most was the replacement of Lovel Palmer at the right flank defensive position with Demar Stewart. The latter, who lacks pace, was caught out time and again as the home team carved a freeway into Jamaica's defence to create danger in front goal, in a way it had never been previously.

Additionally, the usually sound goalie, Miller, was off timing and flapped at air most of the occasions when he came for crosses.

It proved detrimental on the winning goal, when he flapped at the initial cross that spilled into the goalmouth, triggering a scramble that was won by Canuto.

Otherwise Argentina, which generally possessed the ball with ease at the back of the field, established clear superiority. While they were more productive in the latter stages in terms of getting openings, in the first half they could not create a clear scoring chance.

tactical discipline

The latter factor was largely due to the tactical discipline displayed by Jamaica while defending, as they held their position, tracked and marked well.

This closed the spaces in the middle of the field in the final third and forced the home team into opting to drill long balls into the goal area on most occasions.

However, the central defence triumvirate of captain Shavar Thomas, Adrian Reid and Jermaine Taylor, were more than equal to the task and through good positioning, they easily turned away threats of any header intended for the tall centre forward, Martin Palermo.

So good was Jamaica's marking in the first half that Argentina's players could neither dribble through, never had clear chances to provide good crosses on many of the occasions, and the balls fell low for the defenders to boot away.

"The game is 90 minutes and I think we came up short five minutes," said Whitmore. "But overall it gave us something to look at, a platform to really work on with our players to show how to handle this kind of pressure when we play against these teams and to compete at this stage."

He added: "Overall I'm very pleased with the performance of the team, we showed character. The attitude tonight was spot on as well."