The biggest hole we left defensively was on the left flank, where Shelton was supposed to be protecting Troy Smith. It's ironic because the best part of our counter attacking game was luton running at them from left midfield. Perhaps this is a ploy we can use again when our opposition is chasing the game. more work would have to go into his team defending though, since he's already a good tackler (for a forward). Its at least worth considering at some point .
Registered: 03/25/01
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It seems Luton has been progressing nicely a left winger/forward lately. He seems comfortable and reads the game better and maximizes his strength attack from the left side. Not sure, what is smoking or drinking in Turkey but his ball control and passing has improved.
He still has room for improvement but he is now a solid left winger based on my observations of his recent performances for both club and country over the past 12 months.
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Yes, Jamatl. Shelton was by far the man of the match. He has stepped up his class and quality. Right now I would say we have very good depth at forward especially when you put King into the picture. Our D needs work and so does our midfield.
The results are nice; even sweeter when they are wins in away matches. But what is even more satisfying for head coach Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore is the fact his Reggae Boyz are getting more time together.
"It's nice to be winning away from home. Our World Cup qualification begins in a couple of months so it's very nice, the feeling is good," said Whitmore upon the team's return yesterday, following their sojourn in New Zealand, where they beat the All Whites 3-2 in a friendly international football encounter on Wednesday.
"We're pretty pleased with what we've seen. We're looking forward for more. The time we spend together, that's more critical at the moment," added the coach, whose team played three matches from Wednesday to Wednesday, winning all three.
They had beaten Cuba 1-0 in the first of a two-match series at the National Stadium on Ash Wednesday, then travelled west to St James for the second contest, which they won 3-0 at Montego Bay Stadium on Friday night.
The following morning, they were en route to New Zealand, a near three-day trip.
prolonged inactivity
If ever the phrase 'whenever it rains it pours' seemed apt, that eight-day run summed it up perfectly for the Jamaican senior men's team, which had seen a prolonged period of inactivity - more than three months without a practice game.
The ones prior weren't so great, in terms of results, either, with losses against Honduras (2-1), Colombia (2-0), Ecuador (5-1), China (1-0) and the United States (2-0) that stretched back to July.
The period of inactivity had coincided with a three-month FIFA ban on Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president, Captain Horace Burrell, on ethics violations spewing from the presidential elections cash-for-vote scandal that rocked the sport.
With CONCACAF World Cup qualification looming, the Boyz are active again and Whitmore, besides team preparation, is testing new and old players as he builds a squad for the elimination series.
In Wednesday's game, three local-based players - Xavian Virgo, Navion Boyd and Tramaine Stewart - scored, each netting their first international goal.
"It augurs well for the programme to see three of our local Boyz find the back of the net and I'm very pleased with their performance," he said.
Gutsy performance
"It was more of a gutsy performance when you take into consideration the travelling and everything. I think we were a bit organised, but as soon as we got to the latter part of the game that's where we started to lose our shape, the organisation and concentration began to go," Whitmore assessed.
"In a game like this, the legs went the longer the game went on, this is what we expected.
"It (travelling) took a toll on us in the last part of the game, but what the team did was to remain positive because situations like these will arise in World Cup qualifying, we'll just have to know how to deal with it," he surmised.
Among his starters were England-based central defenders Claude Davis and Damion 'Stew Peas' Stewart, who had last represented Jamaica at the CONCACAF Gold Cup Finals in the United States in 2009.
Whitmore didn't say much while analysing their performance.
"It's still early days," he noted. "We've a couple other games still ... to see and analyse (them) for our World Cup squad."
That pool will get much larger and time to prepare for the qualifiers will increase to the point where their levels of performance will become more satisfactory for Whitmore.
"The English League will end in a month's time or so, so it's good to have the English players with us, the Scandinavian players and a couple of other players," the coach noted. "They've been around for a while, so they'll understand what's going on and know where we want to go from there."
The league in England have Damian and Claude looking bigger on the upper body, proper weight training, captain arms band too small for Davis. Anyway,Luton and Adrian Reid should work harder and try make it over to England, they could benefit from some upper body strength.....While Omar not uniform with the team pix....full house though, nice pitch!!
The biggest hole we left defensively was on the left flank, where Shelton was supposed to be protecting Troy Smith. It's ironic because the best part of our counter attacking game was luton running at them from left midfield. Perhaps this is a ploy we can use again when our opposition is chasing the game. more work would have to go into his team defending though, since he's already a good tackler (for a forward). Its at least worth considering at some point .
I hear what you're saying; I was the first ites to name Luton as my man of the match and mi glad sey di ites dema comment intelligently on a game dat dem watch, by now, probably more than once, that's why mi LOVE dis forum.
To be fair, how much more could you ask of Luton in this game; he worked and tracked back all match long as well as running at the NZ defense when the opportunity arose.
If the local wing backs weh Tappa continue to use no good enough, then we have to be honest about that...dem hafi can carry dem owna water bucket go a well...man an man will help dem carry it back wen it full...meaning, dem afi can pull their own weight in the team...or they simply don't deserve to be there.
I honestly see Jamaica's entire defense coming out of the foreign professional leagues.
The only positions that I see one or two local players being able to squeak into the SQUAD is at forward/attacking positions.
Why are we having such a hard time admitting that Jamaica has such quality professional players available now that the semi-pro local players are just simply not good enough to make the team in any numbers ?
Remember, all now Demar Phillips and Jason Morrison no hit this side that beat NZ yet...weh we a go find place fi certain players weh every ites a big up...no disrespect intended...when dem two stalwart tegge reg reach di side...along wid Wily Boo, Marlon King, Omar Daley and Dane Richards....
Onnu a tell mi sey dem monster footballer deh fi si dung so certain local balla can get buss ??!!
Come on now, lets get real about dis ting if we waan Jamaica to qualify for Brazil !
