| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Karl |
Posted - Dec 09 2004 : 09:03:02 AM
Tough road ahead for U-20s
By GORDON WILLIAMS - Contributor
THE BURDEN OF piecing together Jamaica's near-shattered dreams of playing in a world football championship, and reviving the flagging fortunes of the national programme, will fall at the feet of the youth next month.And the load will be not be light.
Beginning January 26, the national Under-20s will face a tough task to avoid the sad fate of Jamaica's senior, Under-23 and Under-17 teams, when they play in the final round of qualifiers, for a place in the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.
However, the young Reggae Boyz got an early peek at possibly their two toughest rivals in the qualifying group when coach Wendell Downswell scouted a quality four-team tournament in the United States last month. The tournament, staged at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, included Mexico and Honduras, who fared reasonably well against reigning world Under-20 champions Brazil and highly fancied hosts, the United States.
Yet Downswell believes Jamaica has enough quality to survive the qualifiers and advance to the world championships in the Netherlands from June 10 to July 2.
"Honduras have a fairly good unit; not as efficient as the Mexicans," said Downswell, who was recently appointed to lead the senior team following the removal of Carl Brown and Sebastiao Lazaroni. "...There is a strong possibility that we can get by the Honduras team. The Mexico team look to be a more formidable unit not to say that we won't be able to get by them."
Canada are the other team in Jamaica's Group B.
Jamaica, Canada and Mexico will travel to Honduras for qualifying games in San Pedro Sula. The young Reggae Boyz will face the hosts on January 26 after Mexico and Canada play in the first game of a double-header. Two days later, Jamaica play Mexico, while Honduras face Canada. On January 30, Canada play Jamaica and Honduras meet Mexico in the final games of the series. The top two will qualify for the Netherlands.
Challenge
The U.S. won the Florida tournament by defeating Mexico 2-1 in the final game on a last minute penalty by star player Freddy Adu, the 15-year-old who is the highest paid player in U.S. Major League Soccer. But, based on the overall performances of the teams, Jamaica is guaranteed a stiff challenge in late January. Despite two losses, to the U.S. (2-0) and then Brazil (3-0), Honduras still appeared a mature and dangerous group, parading promising players such as the skilful forward Luis Rodas, plus Hendry Thomas, a big, strong midfielder with a blistering shot, especially from free kicks.
Following the tournament, Honduras coach Ruben Guiffaro said he expects Mexico to be the team to beat in the group, calling them 'a very strong selection.' However, he said Jamaica should also prove a stern test.
"(Jamaica are) very competitive and physical, with skilful players, and should be a real hard team to beat," Guiffaro told THE STAR through a translator. " The group is really close. All of the opponents are difficult."
Mexico were even more impressive in Florida, relying heavily on the speed and brilliance of winger Marco Parra and the pure class of midfielder Alberto Ramirez. They defeated the talented Brazilians 3-1. However, the world champions, by far the most polished team in the tournament, finished that game with eight players and Mexico 10, following multiple cautions and dismissals sparked by ugly on-and-off-the ball incidents.
Against the U.S., the aggressive Mexicans, a bunch which found numerous ways to disrupt their opponents' flow, also discovered methods to break down the solid U.S., a team which beat Jamaica twice 4-0 and 1-0 in April in Sunrise, Florida, without Adu.
Canada will be no pushover either. When they last met in July, the Canadians topped the young Boyz 2-1 in the first of two friendlies in Sunrise. The second match ended 0-0.
Come January, the young Boyz will be hoping to erase the bad memories of 2004 for Jamaica's national teams. According to Downswell, the squad is fully aware of its role in preserving a programme desperate for success.
"They will have a tremendous responsibility in terms of qualifying and keeping the programme alive," the coach said.
"We relayed to them that the responsibility now is on their shoulders to carry the programme as it relates to qualifying for a major world championship. They are cognizant of the fact that they are entrusted with the responsibility just now."
According to Downswell, some of the Under-20s had harboured hopes of securing spots in Jamaica's senior squad had the team qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. The elimination of the Reggae Boyz left the youngsters disappointed.
"It was really a gloomy time," Downswell said, describing the mood of the Under-20s following Jamaica's elimination on November 17. "...They were looking forward to the World Cup, because they were figuring that, more or less, at their age, probably by the time the World Cup comes around, probably a few of them would have gotten an opportunity to break into the senior team.
"From time to time, a number of them have played with the senior team, so they see that as a source of inspiration," he added.
Competition
The young Boyz will not be lacking competition by the time January 26 rolls around. This year the Under-20s have played a tournament in Europe, visited Florida twice, for a total of four international friendlies, dismissed Haiti in an earlier round qualifying match-up, and played the Cayman Islands' senior team.
In addition, the Under-20s have been invited to train with the senior team, which is trying to qualify for the final round of the Digicel/CFU Caribbean Cup. A few of them played in a senior friendly against Guatemala a few months ago and also in recently completed preliminary round Caribbean Cup games staged in Jamaica.
In addition, Downswell said, the Under-20 squad will likely hold training camps in the U.S. and/or Brazil prior to the January qualifiers, and play a few more friendlies.
"We are looking at a minimum of four to six high quality international games leading up to January 26 to 30," he said.
Earlier this year, Jamaica's Under-23s floundered in the final qualifying round, losing all their matches in Mexico, and failed to advance to the finals of the Olympic Games in Athens. The senior Boyz' 1-1 tie with the U.S. last month also meant the end of their road to Germany World Cup campaign. Shortly after that, the Under-17s were beaten by Haiti and eliminated from the world championships for that age group.
Jamaica qualified for the Under-20 world championship finals in 2001. That tournament was played in Argentina.
CONCACAF's two other representatives to the 2005 championship will come from Group A, which features host U.S., Costa Rica, Panama and either Cuba or Trinidad and Tobago. which will play off on December 10. Group A will be played in Carson, California.
Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in Miami.
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| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Karl |
Posted - Jan 13 2005 : 6:31:31 PM
Development?
From Flex's site: Written after T'dad lost by a 6-1 score to the USA in 2005 U-20 tournament.
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Jahyouth
Synopsis of where T&T players are left behind
Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:01
198.186.239.20
Ok, once again our youth team comprised of Intercol "stars" has proven to be sub-standard on the international level. Any longstanding T&T football fan would know that this has been happening for years now. My question is, where do our players fall behind in their development?
Let us begin looking at this by making a few basic assumptions:
1) No individual nation has "born" players, meaning, no children come out of the womb and can juggle a ball 100 times. Development, be it formal or informal, alongside natural talent makes players great.
2) Let us also say that all kids start "playing" football or being exposed to football at around the same age across the board. Let's use 4 years old as a base figure.
With thise two basic assumptions we are saying that no-one is "born" with world-beating football skill but must develop whatever natural inclination there is towards football by formal or informal means, while starting to be exposed to the game at around 4 years old.
From there we look at the USA and Trinidad and Tobago. What major sports do primary school children play in T&T? Football, cricket, maybe some informal form of track. What about the US kid? He plays baseball, basketball, soccer, American Football, and maybe even hockey. It is fair to say that the Trini MALE child may play more football in his formative years that an American child between the ages of 4 - 8 due to the fact that there are less alternatives.
If we accept that argument, can we say that at this stage Trinidadian players are advanced or at least equal in development stature to the American soccer kid? I think that is a fair statement to make.
Moving on from 8 - 12 years old now. Serious soccer kids begin trying out and playing for "Travel Teams" made up of the best kids in an area for seasonal tournament play at the Under 9 level. From here, the US kid begins to pull away from the Trinidadian. Why? Because at 8 or 9 the Trinidadian child is still only playing primary school football and may not have the opportunity to be exposed to coaching of the basics etc. If the 9 year old Trini is in a club, the standard of the Under 9 football is below that of the select Travel Team tournaments where the best of the best are already playing against one another. And also the Trini club usually in functions only part of the year.
OK, secondary school now. The Trinidadian player passes for school "x" and begins to play Under 14 football. He may also be playing for his village team like Superstar Rangers from St. Anns or Trendsetter Hawks from Belmont. Foootball is played from June - December. January to May is cricket season or there is just not much organised football to be played. The US player in High School has not yet graduated from his select Travel Team environment as the High School rarely has soccer teams beyond the big team (varsity) and Junior varsity (for younger players, but not freshmen). The US player continues moving up the age group ranks in his Travel team environment and plays throughout the year. There are spring seasons, summer soccer leagues, fall seasons and tournaments, and winter indoor leagues. Additionally, already, the better players are intoduced to what is known as Olympic Development Program training squads where the best players at each age group regionally from Under-14 upwards are brought together to train together and play other ODP teams from other regions. This is how their youth squads are selected.
So we see how by the age of 16, while the Trinidadian player has played maybe 5 seasons of football, the US player has already played over three times as many, getting not only more repetitions of basic skill training, but exposure to players across the country.
How then can we expect our players to compete?
What allyuh think?
I for one would like to make the following suggestions:
1) Year round football for all age groups from Under 9 and up. We do this by spacing out the leagues, and offering more in the so-called cricket season as well.
2) Form our own ODP training groups of youngsters. Why wait until they are older to bring the better players together?
3) Secondary Schools Football League must offer out of season tournaments as well. Seven a sides, indoor etc to keep the players active all year. This can also make money for the SSFL.
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