By Nodley Wright, Staff ReporterTHE DEPARTURE on Friday of Patrick 'Jackie' Walters, coach of the country's Under-17 football team, for the Dominican Republic is good news.
Walters is in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean island to watch playoff games involving the host country, their neighbours Haiti, Barbados and the Cayman Islands. In other words he will be scouting these teams. Sure sign that the JFF are listening and learning.
It is important that this is done for Jamaica will the playing the winning team from this group in another Caribbean round eliminator in December. If successful in this meeting then they will go on to Guatemala for another set of qualifiers with that country, the United States and another country - possibly Costa Rica.
An opportunity such as this is nothing remarkable in itself. It should be the done thing but it is far more than what the failed Under-20s were afforded in their qualifiers. Another luxury which these Under-17s will benefit from which their Under-20 colleagues never had, is time. Their next match will be in December which means they have time to gear up for that game - they need it.
In their first round of qualifiers they dismissed Antigua 7-1 on aggregate. This result is flattering. There is still work to be done. In the first leg played at Harbour View, Jamaica did not begin to show that they were clearly better than the opposition until the second half - maybe after a telling off from coach Walters.
That they have talent is clear but they need work, more practice games and a nutrition programme. There is one particular player on this team, he is a delight to watch - has good skills, crosses and strikes the ball well but the most developed part of his body is his knees. He will not be a factor against the more physical, quicker and stronger United States team foe example unless the matter is addressed.
Despite all of that, the Under-17s can almost be considered the favoured children while the women's team and the Under-23s must consider themselves bastards. After achieving the largely unexpected - qualifying for the Gold Cup - under the guidance of coach Christopher Bender, the women have not had as much as a practice match. Two games were scheduled against Trinidad and Tobago close to their recent general elections and cancelled a few days prior to the major event.
The story given was that the games were called off on request of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association as they were unable to host the team in the two scheduled friendly internationals on October 9 and 11 because of the general elections scheduled for October 7. That does not make much sense. Firstly, the election date would have been set at least three weeks before and as far as the reports we had there was no escalation of violence associated with that event in the twin-island republic.
That release was sent out on October 3, 24 days before the women were set to depart for Canada. Could not a match be secured in that time? Not even one against Panama? I wish the women all the best and hope they continue this upsetting trend. If the women thought they were in at bad situation, they should look at the Under-23s or Under-21s (same team) then reconsider.
An advertisement has been running on Foxsports for sometime about their Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC) fixture against Mexico on Thursday, November 28 yet not even a gunshot has been fired about it locally.
This is just a month away and Jamaica are going up against the regional football heavyweights. What are we hoping to achieve? It is just over a month away and some or most of the players probably do not even know that that competition is coming up or when. Maybe they should watch Foxsports.
NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM
It is not all doom and gloom, however, as within this age group is a lot of talent. For this competition, eligible players must be born in the year 1981 or after which means the same players who took part in the 2001 Under-20 World Cup in Argentina. Good news as the core of the squad would have selected itself. Names which come to mind readily are Allien Whittaker voted best man between the sticks in Argentina. There are also defenders Shavar Thomas, Shane Stevens, Alex Thomas, Kevon Harris and Sheldon Battiste.
Of course Wolry Wolfe and Sean Fraser were used as wingbacks but that is another story. Midfielders include Omar Daley, Keith Kelly, Damion Williams, Fabian Dawkins the lone Jamaican goalscorer in Argentina and Khari Stephenson. On the attacking front are Christopher Nicholas, Adam Wallace and Craig Gordon. Roland Dean of Tivoli Gardens (forward), Arnett Gardens' Wayne Ellis (defender) and midfielder/winger Jobi McAnuff of Wimbledon should also be considerations.
McAnuff impressed on his senior debut in a friendly against Nigeria in London earlier this year and the fact that Wimbledon slapped a price tag of two million pounds to ward off Portsmouth, the highest amount associated with a Jamaican international, should mean something. There is also Dwayne Richards (Tivoli Gardens). All together this is a very talented bunch of players which could cause some damage if given the chance.
October 16 was not only important for PJ Patterson. Technical director designate Carl Brown (when will it become official?) saw his team earn a creditable draw in Japan. This is a very good result on which to kick-start the 2006 World Cup campaign but what struck me most about the game was the new jersey unveiled in that game.
It is the best Jamaican design that I have seen. It is up there with all the club and national jerseys that I have seen and have not heard a negative comment about it. When does it go on sale? This is a certain money-spinner and should have been on sale hours after that Japan game.
Where is the Uhlsport outlet in the island anyway? Doesn't the JFF get a fraction of Uhlsport goods sold in the country, especially those bearing the national colours?
