|
Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Feb 03 2002 : 8:14:24 PM
|
Zeppo
Carl Brown article from the Guardian (British newspaper)
Sun Feb 3 09:43:14 2002
65.80.217.9
REGGAE BOY GETS IN STEP AT BOLTON
Jamaica's coach Carl Brown is honing his skills at the Reebok
Roy Collins
Saturday February 2, 2002
The Guardian
As conditions of work go, the one laid down to Carl Brown by the Jamaican Football Federation two months ago seemed more unpalatable to a coach than being forced to work with Stan Collymore and Pierre van Hooijdonk.
Brown was told by the federation president Capt Horace Burrell that, yes, he could realise his life's ambition by becoming technical director and taking full control of the country's campaign to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals, but only if he first agreed to spend 12 months learning about professional football at Bolton Wanderers.
Brown, 51, who won 60 caps for his country, was taken aback but readily accepted. Which is how he came to swap working under a blazing sun for a freezing touchline at Bolton's training ground just off the M61, lashed by rain and winds that at least reminded him of tropical storms.
The federation chose Bolton not through some perverse sense of humour but because two of Jamaica's most promising young internationals, Jermaine Johnson and Ricardo Gardner, play at the club. Significantly they are real Reggae Boyz from the island, unlike Derby's Deon Burton and Darryl Powell and most of the other Jamaicans in English football, who were born here.
Brown is heartened by the way the two have adapted. He says: "When I am out there shivering to death, it's amazing to hear those two Jamaican boys telling me, 'This is one of the better days'. When our players think of England they think of the weather, so it's good to have two young players showing they can survive and play in these conditions."
Gardner and Johnson are perhaps oblivious to conditions in the sky because of what is under their feet - lush green grass rather than the concrete, or worse, where they played at home. "We would be happy if our country had one training facility as good as Bolton's," Brown says. "It's almost a miracle that in 1998 we qualified for the World Cup for the first time when our national team does not even own a field we can train on. We have to move around and borrow fields from the clubs.
"The kids play in the streets or in open lots which are rough and dangerous for them. But that's how they've developed their skills and I know that Ricardo, when he was a young player at Harbour View, literally played on stone."
Gardner and Johnson, who almost abandoned the game when Ipswich turned him down last season, are now role models to hundreds of youngsters on the island. Brown says: "Contrary to popular belief, football has always been a much bigger sport than cricket in Jamaica, but it's always been shambolically organised. So qualifying in 1998 galvanised the players, and Ricardo's contract with Bolton has shown the young players that there is a real career out there in football."
Brown, who was Jamaica's head coach between 1990-94, was followed by three Brazilians, Rene Simoes, who took Jamaica to the World Cup, Sebastio Lazaroni and Clovis de Oliveira. But he was called in again as a face-saving exercise for the last two games of the final Concacaf qualifying group for this summer's World Cup after Jamaica had already been eliminated.
His young team lost only to an 80th-minute Joe-Max Moore goal in America and were beaten 1-0 at home by the runaway group winners Costa Rica. Brown now insists that he must prepare for the 2006 qualifiers with home-based players. He is realistic enough to understand that he cannot expect his English-based players to dash across the world for a meaningless game when he whistles, especially when they play for clubs fighting for their lives such as Bolton and Derby. He says: "We know the difficulties involved so it will be a bonus when I can get players like Ricardo and Jermaine."
The absolute prerequisite for Jamaica's advancement on the world stage, however, is the introduction of a professional league, which has been painfully slow in coming. It was supposed to be launched this season but a chronic lack of organisation made it impossible. Not only were so many pitches and stands way below standard but seven of the 10 leading clubs were fined $5,000 (£3,500) for not even managing to register in time for the semi-professional National A-league.
Behind the A-league is a 12-club second division, followed by 14 parish leagues. Brown says: "We see more players giving more time to the game now but there is no other way of developing them but to go professional so that the Jamaican league becomes a springboard for players to earn a living from the game in Europe.
"I have already seen how professional the management structure is at Bolton and the level of harmony and comradeship among the coaches. I want to get that across back home, as well as the work ethic of the players."
The national team also need to play more matches, though Jamaica next play on May 16, providing warm-up opposition for the United States in New York before the US leave for Japan and Korea. Brown is hoping to preface that with a game against Bolton at the Reebok a few days earlier, chuckling: "It should be warm enough for our boys by then."
Karl |
|
Topic Locked
