Audley Boyd, Asst. Sport Editor
Jamaica's Jermaine Taylor walks back to the locker room after receiving a red card for a tackle on DaMarcus Beasley of the U.S. in the second half of their CONCACAF Gold Cup match in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on Saturday. - REUTERS
BOSTON, Massachusetts:
NONE OF the opposing teams wore red. But Jamaica's senior national football team saw a card of that colour for three of the four matches it played at the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Having concluded that's just too much, head coach Wendell Downswell will be working at kicking that habit.
"A major concern is the number of red cards that we got in this tournament. This is something we've to guard against," warned Downswell" It had his team working overtime for ejections to Claude Davis at the 15th minute in the first match against Guatemala; Omar Daley at the 71st minute against Mexico and Jermaine Taylor in the 66th minute against the United States.
Strange enough, in the only match a Reggae Boy never picked up a red card, their South African opponents did.
The Jamaican coach says there's no quick fix to the problem.
"That will come with preparation, once you can get the players over an extended time to work with our defenders, to fine tune them, the detailed things as to how they can temper their aggression and use it in a very constructive way, these are things that we'll definitely make a conservative effort to improve as it relates to the personal development of these players and the team in general," he explained.
All the players ejected were playing defensive roles with Davis and Taylor at the central position and Daley, a midfielder, playing at right back.
WEAK AREA
The defence in general was one of the team's weak areas, conceding 10 goals in four matches and Downswell pointed out that the work on the individuals will generally assist the team on a whole.
On a more positive note, the coach singled out the Reggae Boyz' biggest plus at the tournament as "the offensive part of the team". He said: "Having scored eight goals at this level I think it speaks volumes. The team played in a mature way and at no time they looked as if they were out of depth, which is good. And then for us to just start a rebuilding process this was an excellent process for us to test where we are as it relates to football in the CONCACAF region.
"The players have demonstrated that they can compete with the top teams in the CONCACAF region and for them to move to a different level now it will take international exposure."
By way of example, Downs-well related a point, saying: "Look at Sawyers (Shawn) for example, maybe many people think that he shouldn't have played against a team like Mexico and there were several other changes and people criticised that we made six changes but the players stood up and stood up well.
"As a coach I have all the confidence in the players I have selected and the only way they can grow is for you to give them the necessary international experience and exposure because by virtue of them being on the bench, when the crisis time comes around you won't know what they're capable of doing, so once we can continue to use these tournaments as a building block going onto 2010 we'll do that."
