Agreed. They look like if a team doesnt use the ball properly and allows them a lot of possession, they can hurt you. But if we tek it to them and keep the ball - and (say a prayer) we finish our chances dem DEAD.
Agreed. They look like if a team doesnt use the ball properly and allows them a lot of possession, they can hurt you. But if we tek it to them and keep the ball - and (say a prayer) we finish our chances dem DEAD.
If Guate plays like this against JA they will lose easily
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Whitmore: Panama clash ideal for Reggae Boyz Published: Saturday | May 26, 2012 0 Comments
Ricardo Fuller
Nyron Nosworthy
Marlon King
Errol Stevens
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Ryon Jones, Staff Reporter
National senior men's football coach Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore believes Panama's challenge is just what the team needs going into the next round of World Cup qualifiers, when the Reggae Boyz host Guatemala at the National Stadium on June 8. The Reggae Boyz will tackle the 52nd-ranked Panamanians in a 6 p.m. meeting tomorrow at The Office.
The teams have previously met seven times with Jamaica coming out on top on two occasions, four ending in draws and Panama winning the other. The seven meetings have yielded 19 goals, as both teams have netted in all the encounters.
"When you look at the Panama team, you could compare them with Guatemala who we'll play on June 8," Whitmore reasoned before the team's training session at the stadium yesterday.
"We have been working on our organisation and shape and ball possession and a bit of finishing, so it is a combination of these things we are looking for in the Panama game," he added.
The Reggae Boyz are unbeaten this year, having registered four wins and a draw. The most recent victory came on May 18 when a goal by debutant Jeremie Lynch was enough to see the team get past Caribbean counterparts Guyana. Despite the victory, however, a lot was left to be desired regarding the strikers' showing in front of goal.
Strike force strengthened
The squad's strike force has been significantly strengthened for this game, with the return of Birmingham City talisman Marlon King and Stoke City striker Ricardo Fuller. Fuller has not donned the national colours in over 18 months, while King, who has 12 goals for Jamaica in 19 games, last played for the country in 2009.
"We are pleased to have any given player, especially players that are out there plying their trade and doing well, but it's left to their commitment for the country," Whitmore stated. "With the strike force that we have right now, I don't think that if the players go out there and perform that goalscoring should be a problem, with the likes of Marlon King, Luton Shelton, Dane Richards and Ryan Johnson.
He added: "We are not building the team around any one player; this is a team, so we are not concentrating on putting Marlon (King) or any one player under pressure."
With additional players such as 22-year-old attacking left-sided player Chris Humphrey, who plays for Motherwell in the Scottish Premier League, having joined the squad, Whitmore now has an embarrassment of riches where attacking options are concerned.
"At the end of the day, it's the players who pick themselves, not coaches, and it will be left to the mood, attitude and commitment they show in training that's going to determine if they put on the shirt come Sunday and on June 8," Whitmore expressed.
“We’re not far away from the successes of ‘98,” Theodore Whitmore told FIFA.com after a long pause.
The current Jamaica coach played a crucial role in his island’s greatest footballing achievement, in France that year, when they reached their first and only FIFA World Cup™ finals. “We’re moving in the right direction, we have the right balance to get back to the top,” he added.
The Jamaicans are considered a powerhouse in the unpredictable world of Caribbean football, but the they have achieved little of note on the international stage since reaching the world’s biggest tournament those 14 years ago.
Lack of organisation and investment have posed problems for the Reggae Boyz – as the national team is known in the football-mad Caribbean nation – as have the logistics of maintaining a competitive side with a mixture of players from the local leagues and far afield in Europe and USA.
They reached the quarter-finals of last year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, but the Boyz are still considered talented, athletic underachievers in the region. However, Whitmore, who scored twice in intrepid Jamaica’s only win in 1998, is keen on turning things around. Discipline is his watchword. We haven’t won anything yet. We have laid the foundations and now we have to execute and take advantage. Jamaica coach Theodore Whitmore
“We started building a new core for the team when I took over [in 2009],” said the coach, a bulky midfield schemer with stints in England at Tranmere Rovers and Hull City. “We needed to rebuild.” After cutting some sacred cows and established stars, Whitmore scoured for young talent at home and abroad to start afresh.
“We have a bunch of young boys who worked their socks off and got in line behind me,” said the man known to his countrymen as Tappa. “They’re hungry, which is what you need when you pull on the national team shirt. You need pride.”
Whitmore led his young side to a Caribbean Cup crown in 2010, their second straight title. A number of young talents, ignored in previous incarnations of the Reggae Boyz set-up emerged at those finals in Martinique, chief among them was New York Red Bull Dane Richards.
The speedy winger finished top scorer in the tournament and now figures prominently in the starting eleven. “Tappa is all about pride and respect, the coach shows it to us and we show it to him. It’s the most important thing,” Richards told FIFA.com.
Foundations in place The Jamaicans are undefeated since the start of the year, having not tasted defeat in their last five friendly outings. It all bodes well for Whitmore and his men as they get set to take on Guatemala on 8 June in their first qualifier for the 2014 finals in Brazil, after having earned a pass through to the second round.
“I know my starting eleven,” said the coach. “But we’re still looking around here and there at players in case of injuries or other things that might emerge.”
The coach is likely to rely on Turkey-based striker and top scorer Luton Shelton when Guatemala come to the National Stadium in Kingston, known affectionately as ‘The Office’.
His new rearguard features the Watford pairing of Nyron Nosworthy and Adrian Mariappa, while Omar Daley, Marlon King, Ricardo Fuller and Richards are likely to figure in the side’s foreign-based contingent.
The coach will be looking for a top-two finish in a Group A that also includes regional powers USA and up-and-coming Caribbean minnows Antigua and Barbuda. “We can’t look too far ahead,” said the coach, ever cautious and knowing better than most the trials and tribulations that accompany a run to the FIFA World Cup.
“We haven’t won anything yet. We have laid the foundations and now we have to execute and take advantage… Brazil 2014 is there as our target.”
