Earning a place in this year's Copa America as one of two invited teams, the Jamaicans deserved at least a draw on their debut after giving as good as they got and Uruguay sneaked the win with a 52nd minute goal by midfielder Cristian Rodriguez.
“It was a very hard match for us,” he said of the Group B win. “My players were surprised, you could see that at the beginning. Jamaica’s team organisation was good with the pressure they put on the ball,” Tabarez told reporters.
“When there is a lot of pressure, there’s little time to think on the ball, that’s going to be hard for opponents ... They break well into attack.”
Tabarez said Uruguay tended to start tournaments slowly and the more so this time with a short preparation period.
“We were not sharp with our final shot, we must improve as quickly as possible for this Cup,” he said with the big group match against Argentina on Tuesday.
Jamaica next face Paraguay, who shocked favourites Argentina by coming back from two goals down for a 2-2 draw in La Serena.
(Reporting by Javier Leira in Santiago; Writing by Rex Gowar; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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