National coach Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore said there could be no excuses for the Reggae Boyz's early exit from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, based on the number of quality players taken to the tournament.

"You are going to hear all sorts of excuses, but if we had won our games, there wouldn't have been any excuses," Whitmore said following the team's arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday.

"I think we have no explanation for us to be in this position because of the quality players that we had compared to other teams in the competition. There are just no excuses," he added.

Poor beginning

The Jamaicans began the tournament by losing their first two games to Canada and Costa Rica by a 1-0 margin each. Placing third in Group A on three points, they had been waiting anxiously to confirm whether they would have advanced in the competition as one of the best two third-place spots in the quarter-finals. However, their hopes were dashed when Panama slammed Nicaragua 4-0 in Group C to grab the last remaining third place spot and Haiti played their way to a 2-2 draw with the United States.

According to Whitmore, the team failed to operate as a unit.

"I am very disappointed, but out of every bad comes good, and we just have to learn from our mistakes," said Whitmore. I think that there is no excuse for our performances because we needed to stand up and fight for what we wanted.

"I think that we did not deserve to be in this position, but that is part of football and we feel very let down," added Whitmore.

"A lot of things happened both on and off the field, non-footballing issues, but that is no reason ... to be in the position, we are in now."

Whitmore, who took over the head-coaching duties from John Barnes last month, added that man for man, they had better players when compared to other teams in the tournament.

Also returning home yesterday were senior players, captain Ricardo Gardner, Ricardo Fuller, Rodolph Austin, Claude Davis and Jermaine Johnson.

The quarter-finals of the Gold Cup kick off on Saturday with Canada facing Honduras and hosts United States playing Panama in Philadelphia.