Story from Canada Kicks.
The winning strike came in the 53rd minute on an overlap, like a rugby attack as a wave of red shirts headed towards the Jamaican goal. Brennan took the ball after three nifty passes and fired a low shot that eluded Jamaican goalie Aaron Lawrence.
The goal capped eight minutes of pure Canadian offence orchestrated by Brennan, a young wingback who plays for Bristol City in the English Second Division.
``It really looked like good football, in particular the goal we scored,'' said beaming Canadian coach Holger Osieck, sounding positively joyful. ``It was a brilliant team effort, the way I like to see it.''
The Canadian defence bent but never broke as the clock wound down, but there were plenty of scares.
Still, the Canadians hung on, knocking off a team that is ranked 55 places ahead of them at No. 42 in the FIFA rankings.
``In the end the better team won tonight,'' said American coach Bruce Arena, whose team plays in Jamaica on Sept. 8.
The game attracted an overflow pro-Jamaican crowd of 8,568 to the west stand of Varsity Stadium, the only side in use because of decaying seats elsewhere in the century-old ground that seated 21,000 in better days.
Kickoff was delayed more than 20 minutes to accommodate late-arriving fans and some 500 were turned away. Some of those who got in simply wedged themselves in by exits or grabbed a piece of walkway.
Yellow, green and black were the colours of the day, although the occasional Maple Leaf was visible. But it was the Jamaican flags that were flying when the sound system finally kicked into action prior to the match with Bob Marley's pulsating One Love and I Shot the Sheriff.
The game, which improved Osieck's record as Canadian coach to 3-3-1, started slowly for Canada.
Canada offered a defensive look with only Garret Kusch, a blunt instrument-type striker with little finesse, up front while Davide Xausa and Paul Stalteri hung back, forming a triangle.
In the second half, Xausa and Stalteri moved up and Brennan carved his way through the right side of the Jamaican defence.
Kusch had a good scoring opportunity right after the break as Brennan, taking the ball from Nick Dasovic on a quick free kick, beat his man and sent in a venomous cross. Kusch's volley banged off a defender, however.
Brennan almost took matters into his own hands seconds later when Lawrence was forced to parry the Canadian wingback's swerving shot.
Lawrence made a diving save soon after to punch away Tony Menezes' pinpoint header off a Brennan free kick.
Osieck said he told his players in the interval they needed to redouble their effort against the skilful Jamaicans, to create space and passing opportunities so they could control the game rather than just pursue the opposition.
``They showed great fighting spirit but that's definitely not good enough for me, for my kind of football,'' he said.
In the first half, Canada looked anything but commanding. Jamaica pressured early and the Canadians looked wobbly before finally finding their feet at the 20-minute mark of what proved to be a sloppy half. The excitement was reserved for the second half.
The Jamaicans offered plenty of style but little substance as their array of flicks and dipsy-doodles accomplished little. Still, flashy striker Ricardo Fuller gave Canadian captain Jason de Vos fits in the first half and Fabian Davis's low, bending free kick forced Canadian goalie Pat Onstad to punch the ball away at the last second just on the stroke of halftime.
Canada took the field to boos that outweighed cheers at first, but the pro-Canada cheering finally managed to pull even. Jamaica followed to raucous applause.
Onstad was a surprise starter in the Canadian goal. He wasn't named in the original squad but managed to make it to Toronto from Virginia Beach, Va., where he played Wednesday night in the Rochester Raging Rhinos' 3-2 upset win over the Columbus Crew in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal.
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