Kemar Lawrence has had a busy year. Changing leagues, moving to a new country, joining a new team and then earning a starting berth, and solidifying his place with the Jamaican national team, all at the age of 22, would be rough for anyone to handle.
He must be one pretty tired young man.
Asked when he might be able to rest, Lawrence laughed. “At the end of the season, I guess,” he said.
“I’m not really focused on that. I’m just focused on going as long as my coach needs me and my team needs me. That’s really my focus, to get as far as possible, and right now we’re on the top (of the Eastern Conference) and we want to remain there and do our best all the time. I really don’t think about being tired, I just think about coming to training and giving my all.
“(Coach) Jesse (Marsch), (assistant coach) Chris (Armas) and (assistant coach) Denis (Hamlett) have helped me a lot, talking to me about how to manage everything, giving me some rest when I need it. They’ve been great. They’ve been supportive and cooperative.”
Having just turned 23, Lawrence is having the time of his life. He’s enjoying his first year with the Red Bulls, enjoying playing left back in Marsch’s system, and enjoying the success the team has had this year. It’s not something he saw coming, at least right away.
“My impression of MLS has always been a good setting for me, a good setting to go and establish myself and get started,” said Lawrence, who had been playing with Jamaican club Harbour View. “Coming here, it’s really different. There’s a lot of good players, a lot of good teams. Jesse’s system really fits me well. I like to get forward and press a guy, defend one-v-one, and I just really fit in. Coming here has really helped me a long way and it’s made me a better player every day.”
Lawrence joined the Red Bulls for the start of the second preseason camp in Sarasota, Fla., but wasn’t signed until March 16, one game into the season. Six days later, he was starting against D.C. United in the home opener. With Roy Miller being injured most of the season, Lawrence has taken over at left back and impressed the coaching staff not only with his defense, but his attacking ability as well.
“After Roy got that early injury I was really establishing myself,” said Lawrence, who has started 19 games and recorded four assists. “Unfortunately he had to get injured. No one wants their teammate to get injured. It happened at a time I was playing good. Jesse put me in the team and from there I didn’t really look back. I just kept my focus, kept training hard, kept putting God first and that’s brought me here today. I’m starting and I feel good about it, but I still want more. I still want to do more, make a place in the team and to be a better team player.”
It was also a busy year for the Jamaican national team, and with Lawrence playing so well with the Red Bulls, his place in the Jamaican starting 11 has been cemented.
“It had its moments, but I wasn’t really focusing on it, I was really thinking about playing every game at my best, putting God first, playing every game for the team I’m playing for and trying my best to please the coaches and my teammates,” Lawrence said about his international career. “I was just trying to let everyone count on me and knowing I’m going to be there and give my best, and hopefully on the day my best is going to be good enough.”
Lawrence has represented the Jamaican Under-17 and Under-20 teams and, since 2013, has earned 24 caps with the full national team. This past summer, Lawrence had a hectic schedule, playing in the CONCACAF Gold Cup and going back and forth to Jamaica for World Cup qualifying.
The highlight of the summer was a 2-1 victory over the United States in the Gold Cup semifinals July 22 in Atlanta.
“It was great, it was really, really great,” Lawrence said with a smile. “We were really pumped up as a team. We knew we wanted to get through the match. The U.S. had been there a couple of times, maybe more than most teams, so it was going to be our first time there and we were just really pumped up about that. It was a great feeling to go out there and play as a team and get the result that we wanted. I thought, at the end of the day, we deserved it because we went out there and played some really good football.”
But after the high came the low. The championship game against Mexico was a rugged affair. Mexico, with all its experience, won 3-1.
“I try not to think about it. I try and think of the positive stuff,” said Lawrence, who has scored two international goals. “It’s hard to go to a final and lose when you really, really want to win. To bring that Cup back to Jamaica would have been great, but I never really dwell on the bad things or the negative things that happen. I just try and move forward. It was bad, but there are better days to come.”
And there were, although they came with quite a scare. Jamaica, riding high from its victory over the United States and its overall Gold Cup performance, was paired against Nicaragua in the third round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. In the first leg, Sept. 4 in Kingston, Jamaica, Nicaragua scored twice in the first eight minutes and stunned Jamaica, 3-2.
In the return leg, four days later in Managua, Nicaragua, Jamaica had to win by two goals to advance. Vancouver Whitecaps forward Darren Mattocks scored in the 13th minute, but Nicaragua bunkered down. Jamaica was one minute from being eliminated three years before the start of the 2018 World Cup when Simon Dawkins volleyed the ball from just inside the box into the lower left corner to save the day.
Lawrence started the play with a throw-in from the left that was headed in the air by a Nicaraguan defender. Dawkins did the rest.
“It was one of the toughest games of my life,” Lawrence said. “We had a moment when a lot of the guys maybe dropped their belief and dropped their heads for a minute, but thanks to God we did it and we stuck together as a team, and off of a great goal we went through. Now we have to focus on the next round and try and get to the last round and get into the World Cup.”
The next round will begin in November, right when the Red Bulls are in full playoff mode. We’ll have to see how it works out, but one thing’s for sure, Kemar Lawrence will continue to play meaningful games for the next few months, and it doesn’t look like he’ll be getting that rest anytime soon.
