MIAMI, Florida:

THEODORE WHITMORE and his Reggae Boyz are anxiously awaiting favourable results from Groups B and C to know if they will qualify for the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup as one of the best third-place finishers.

"We've to wait to see what happens and see if we'll move on from there," said head coach Theodore Whitmore at a post-game press conference.

Halfway in

The Boyz, who are waiting in Miami with their feet halfway in, halfway out of the championship, are counting on a number of probabilities to know if their next flight Monday will lead to Kingston or on to quarter-final venues in Philadelphia, Chicago or Texas.

Group B was completed last night and the Jamaicans had a chance to win through ahead of two teams, Haiti and Honduras. Haiti beat Grenada 2-0 to be on three points, but lost their second game 0-1 for a plus one (+1) goal difference. They played the United States last night and the Jamaicans were hoping for a United States win by more than three goals, as well as a Grenada victory over Honduras.

In Group C, the hope is that Nicaragua will draw or beat Panama in their final game tomorrow night. Nicaragua lost both their games, while Panama have only one point in two matches.

There are three preliminary groups of four teams and the top two are guaranteed to advance to the eight-team quarter-finals.

Additionally, the two top third-place teams will advance.

The Jamaicans placed third in Group A on three points by beating El Salvador 1-0 on a 75th-minute goal by Omar Cummings, in the feature game of a Group A double-header at the Florida International University on Friday night.

El Salvador also ended preliminary group play on three points. Canada won the group with seven points after drawing 2-2 with Costa Rica in Friday night's first match. The Costa Ricans ended a clear second with four points.

Given the even placing between Jamaica and El Salvador, goal difference was the primary tiebreaker. But both countries emerged even at minus one (-1).

Head-to-head was the next decider and Jamaica prevailed due to their 1-0 win.

"It's a nice feeling to return to winning ways," noted Whitmore. "We don't deserve to be in this position.

"After two losses, coming into the third and final game we were very disappointed," he added.

The Boyz had significantly dominated their opponents in their first two matches but had nothing to show after 0-1 losses to Canada and Costa Rica.

They entered the El Salvador contest in a must-win situation and got their goal when Omar Cummings met a cross from Luton Shelton at the near post and turned the ball into the net.

"It started on the left flank with Luton getting the ball," said Cummings, describing the goal. "Once he beat his man inside I just tried to cheat a little bit across my man and he saw me, slipped the ball in and I got a foot on it."

Jamaica made enough chances to win the game by at least four clear goals as the game opened up after they had scored late, but they denied themselves that luxury by wasteful finishing in their moments of anxiety.

After a fast start in which they had total domination, plenty of corners but no clear scoring chances in the first half, the Jamaicans produced goalscoring opportunities in a flurry towards the end of the match as they added a lot of pace to their game with the introduction of Jermaine Johnson, Nicholas Addlery and Dane Richards.

With more measured attacking play, Shelton also stepped up his game big time, especially in the last half hour.

Cummings, Addlery, Fuller, Demar Phillips, Tyrone Marshall and Johnson all had chances towards the end, but Addlery made an unbelievable miss.

Shelton went at goalkeeper Miguel Montes, who had an outstanding game keeping his team in the game, then played a pass to Addlery free in the six-yard box. A defender slid in and blocked what should have been a certain goal, with the gaping net and the goalie out of sight.

El Salvador twice went close to hitting a deadly equaliser but Ricketts made a point-blank save off a header and goalie Montes' free kick kit the upright.

Commenting on the key to shackling El Salvador, Whitmore said: "We firmed up our defensive part of our game, we threw people into attack who can use the ball well, but overall I think it was a team effort."

He added: "We're still missing a number of chances, we could've easily put away three, four goals this evening."