Under-20s off to Cayman for friendlies By Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter
JAMAICA'S Under-20 team will depart for the Cayman Islands this evening for two friendly matches against that country's national team before they head off to South America for further preparations for the World Cup. For coach Wendell Downswell, these two games which will take place tomorrow and Sunday will serve as a test of how ready the team is for the Argentina tournament. The team has not had the opportunity of getting many practice matches against international opposition. In Brazil where the team will spend a few days before heading to Argentina, they will meet fellow qualifiers Angola on June 8, Brazil on the 10th and winners of the Rio de Janeiro state championships, Vasco da Gama. "The Cayman game will be a true assessment of how far they have come because they (our players) will be truly rested. I am hoping that the Cayman national team will give us the sort of competition that we are looking forward to," Downswell said after a training session at Constant Spring yesterday. Prior to this trip the team have been playing matches against parish teams to keep themselves sharp and Downswell said the plan served its purpose. "So far I am happy with what has transpired in terms of preparations. As you can see we have now cut the squad to 20. The games that we have played against the parish teams has helped us a lot in terms of preparation. "The other two games that we have played against the national team back-to-back were good for them but one of the drawbacks that we have is scoring. We are still not satisfied with that department. (Christopher) Nicholas who came off today, he has not got a goal yet since Canada and we are hoping that in Cayman he will start there. The fact that he did not score in Canada and we won is good," added Downswell who said he was "hoping to correct that (goalscoring) in Cayman and fine-tune in Brazil." The team is now almost fully fit with captain Shavar Thomas returning from an ankle injury and Fabian Dawkins shaking off his thigh trouble. There was a little worry, however, about Adam Wallace who limped out of training after colliding with teammate Craig Gordon. Defender Alex Thomas will join the team after they return from the Cayman Islands. Squad. Allien Whittaker, Allan Reid, Shavar Thomas, Wolry Wolfe, Sean Fraser, Dave Leung, Sheldon Battiste, Kevon Harris, Shave Stevens, Kevin King, Damion Williams, Christopher Nicholas, Craig Gordon, Adam Wallace, Khari Stephenson, Omar Daley, Keith Kelly, Fabian Dawkins and Fabian Blake.
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