IT'S OVER, it's over, Jamaica's 2010 World Cup dream was laid to rest late on Wednesday evening not at the National Stadium, but in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

The Reggae Boyz did everything right at 'The Office' and downed a spirited but outclassed young Canada team 3-0.

However, Honduras took care of their business in their own yard by beating Mexico 1-0 and that, my friends, was when the band stopped playing.

Jamaica recovered from one all mighty one-point-from-three-games hole to miss advancing to CONCACAF's final qualifying group on mere goal difference to the Mexicans and the team and coaching staff should be applauded for showing tremendous fighting spirit, in the face of great odds, right to the final whistle of the final game.

However, three straight wins can't cover the fact that the 'Back to Africa' campaign is now in tatters and the national football programme is in a precarious state.

stubborn persistence

Every man and his goat want to blame sacked technical director René Simoes for the failed Cup run and in some other countries effigies of the little Brazilian would still be burning.

For sure, the Professor must take the largest slice of the blame cake for his stubborn persistence in not picking the best players available in the first three encounters before being summarily dismissed.

However, from the beginning, I was firmly in the camp of those who felt Simoes should not have been brought back to try and recapture lightning in a bottle.

To me, it was akin to meeting an old girlfriend, getting back together, enjoying the honeymoon period and, then, rediscovering why you broke up in the first place.

To expect to revive the magic of the Road to France '98 campaign was purely fanciful thinking on the part of Jamaica Football Federation president and Simoes ally Captain Horace Burrell, who went to great lengths after Wednesday night's game to exonerate himself of any blame for the blown campaign.

Burrell reacted with great haste to jettison the technical director he inherited from the Boxhill regime, 'Bora' Milutinovic, and replace him with his little buddy.

See how well that worked out now.

There's no saying Bora would have got the team any further than it reached but, then, he was never given the chance. His blueprint was to check out the local talent (which led to some dreadful but expected results abroad) and then bring in the big guns, the guns Simoes refused to let loose.

On Wednesday night, Burrell described Bora as a "tourist" who did "nothing" for the football programme. It was an unnecessary blast from the man who never gave him an opportunity, not even one practice game, to show his programme and possible worth.

Instead, it appears, Burrell just wanted to purge his JFF of all traces of the Boxhill group which usurped him from his treasured post and Bora was part of the residue.

bigger problems

Now, the president has even bigger problems than when he retook office. While the rest of the 'big' football world will be immersed in World Cup qualifying next year, Jamaica are going to have to beg, borrow and scrape for friendlies against Cup hopefuls.

The sponsorship dollars from those corporations ready to hop on the South Africa bandwagon will now not appear and public interest in a national team going nowhere of consequence for at least four years is likely to wane dramatically.

Hopefully, new head coach John Barnes can use some of his international fame to boost the programme, but the lion's share of the heavy lifting has to be done by Burrell.

It's certainly not all his fault but he is also not as blameless as he would have us believe.

Later ...

Feedback: tym.glaser@gleanerjm.com