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Posted - Jul 22 2006 : 10:52:02 PM
Simoes' departure means end of 'Reggae Boyz'
Friday, September 14, 2001 24:19 EST
By Robert Woodward [Reuters]
LONDON -- Rene Simoes' resignation as coach of the Jamaican national team brings the curtain down on a six-year soccer extravaganza that combined the samba of Brazil with the distinctive beat of the Caribbean to produce the Reggae Boyz.
Simoes' achievement in helping Jamaica qualify for the 1998 World Cup finals in France was astonishing. Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson called it "undoubtedly the greatest day in our sporting history."
Four years earlier, the Caribbean island had no professional league and had been knocked out of the Caribbean Shell Cup by the Cayman Islands.
Simoes not only revived the team's fortunes with a brand of evangelizing, maximum-volume coaching that seemed to suit the Jamaican way of doing things, but also turned cricket-mad Jamaica on to soccer to such an extent that it became a key part in Patterson's nation-building on an island often plagued by political violence.
"It's very difficult to address Jamaicans to say I am leaving," said Simoes, who is heading for Brazil's Flamengo as technical director. "I don't know how to describe the feelings I have, because I have grown to love Jamaica."
Simoes, recently returned to Brazil from the Middle East, had not been keen to take the job in 1994 when he was first approached by Captain Horace Burrell, president of the Jamaican Football Federation.
But he was persuaded by Brazilian government officials and Burrell that his professionalism could make the most of the natural flair of the Jamaican players, who idolized anything to do with Brazilian soccer.
He faced many problems. Soccer was a sport of the ghettos in Jamaica, and games were often disrupted by violence. It was not unknown for referees to carry guns to protect themselves.
Style would always win over teamwork, and "motivating the terminally relaxed was not going to be easy," as one book on the Reggae Boyz pointed out.
But Simoes, once coach of Brazil's under-23 squad, won over local fans and sponsors, sidelined recalcitrant club owners and began making a name for Jamaican soccer overseas.
He had inherited some fine home-grown players like midfielder Peter Cargill and goalkeeper Warren Barrett, but compared many local players to "performing seals."
To realize Burrell's dream of reaching the 1998 finals, "God's plan" in Simoes-speak, he knew he would have to inject a dose of experience and mental toughness.
He therefore turned his singular style of public relations to persuading players in the English leagues with Jamaican parentage to play for the Reggae Boyz.
Wimbledon's Robbie Earle was one player targeted. He had visited Jamaica several times, but he was unsure.
"If I broke my leg in Jamaica, would there be anaesthetic, or would I get a bamboo shoot strapped to the side of my leg and told to be on my way?" he wondered.
But Simoes had one ace up his sleeve, the chance to play in the World Cup finals, and Earle, like several others, decided the risk was worthwhile.
Picking players from abroad fitted the nation's "Out of many, one nation" credo, and the influence of Earle and others was quickly apparent as the World Cup bandwagon gathered pace.
By November 1997, Jamaica had only to draw with Mexico in Kingston to clinch a finals berth, and the 0-0 result sparked the biggest party in the nation's history.
The government declared a national holiday to allow the celebrations to continue, and promised team members land and low-cost loans to build their own homes.
Looking back, it is clear that qualification was the high point of the Reggae Boyz adventure.
Twenty five warm-up games in six months, huge expectations among the home fans and arguments over money with officials meant the side was weary when it reached France.
Tension between English-based players and those born and bred in Jamaica surfaced the night before their opening match against Croatia, when a British television documentary pinpointed the differences between the two "camps."
They were beaten 3-1 by Croatia and then thrashed 5-0 by Argentina before gaining some pride with a 2-1 defeat of Japan. But the dream was over, and the knives came out for Simoes, whose contract ran out in October 1998.
After premier Patterson's intervention, Simoes decided to stay, on but poor results in this month's Gold Cup -- Jamaica lost to Honduras and Colombia -- led Simoes to accept Flamengo's offer, which he believes will lead to a less hectic family life.
Sacked Celtic manager John Barnes, who was born in Jamaica, is some fans' choice to take over. Whoever does will have to decide whether to turn to England for reinforcements, still a contentious subject among Reggae Boyz supporters.
Fans agreed on Tuesday that Simoes would be missed, and Jamaican soccer owed him a great deal.
"Every single one of us appreciates the effort you made to put us on the world stage, for we all danced the day we qualified," wrote the "webmaster" at the Reggae Boyz website.
"So Mr. Simoes, on behalf of all of us, I wish to thank you for helping our little nation realize its dreams. Even if we never make it to the "big dance" again, we thank you for the important part you played in that accomplishment."
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