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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 05 2003 : 10:20:13 PM
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Carl Brown looks ahead
FOOTBALL
By Garfield Myers
Sunday, January 05, 2003
Brown. We're going to ask the JFF for what we want
Some say winning is not everything, but Carl Brown who formally took over as technical director of Jamaica's football on New Year's Day knows it's the most important thing.
"... I recognised from very early that coaches are judged by results," Brown told the Sunday Observer on New Year's Eve, as he watched his senior Reggae Boyz training squad work out at the Red Stripe football field on Spanish Town Road.
"Regardless of how you hear people talking about 'it's not whether you win or lose, it's how you play the game'. I know they don't judge you by that. It's results that count and winning is always my aim," he added.
It's the basic philosophy that will guide his drive to carry the Jamaica team to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. And he knows whatever else he does, the success or failure of the campaign will dictate how he is judged.
".. I know that's how I'll be judged," he said. "I know that if we don't qualify for Germany 2006 then people will feel that we have failed. It's our (coaching staff) ultimate goal. It's something that we understand. It's the big picture we have painted."
And the former Jamaica defender believes his record as a "winning coach" puts him in good stead to repeat the achievements of Brazilian, Rene Simoes, who famously guided the Reggae Boyz to the 1998 World Cup in France.
Not only is Brown one of Jamaica's most successful coaches ever, having won the Caribbean Cup in 1991 and 1998 and placed third in the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 1993, his record locally is very impressive. He guided his beloved Boys' Town to the Premier League title three times and the Major League title nine times.
But while recognising the primacy of the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign, Brown has other goals. "Qualifying for the Olympics (with the under-23 team) is one that's very close to my heart and ... beating the US team ...," he said.
And, he argued, that in the long-term drive to build football, the upgrading of coaches will be absolutely essential. His own one-year attachment at English premier league side, Bolton, had opened his eyes to the value of top-class exposure for coaches at clubs overseas - particularly those to which Jamaican professionals are attached.
Now Brown dreams of replicating the experience "maybe not for as long as a year but even for a month or two" for top local coaches. Bolton are interested in helping, Brown said. But he warned that candidates for any such coaching project would be carefully screened.
"Bolton was great for me . and I'd want for our coaches to be exposed to something like that. (But) I know (and) it's something that the president (Captain Horace Burrell) has expressed concern about, that the people we send must be good ambassadors . we will have to be very, very careful," he declared.
And at the local level even without overseas attachments, Brown said the drive would be to "put our coaches in a position where they can really command the sort of respect and attention that players need to give, for them to develop." Wherever possible qualified coaches from abroad would be brought in to help the locals and at the local level, courses would be "upgraded and intensified", he said.
And as he looks forward to the next four years, Brown believes a special effort will have to be made to avoid the errors of the past and to make sure that mistakes are corrected quickly.
"We want to look at every three months, assess ourselves, assess our players, assess the programme itself. We want to take detailed looks at it and we want to look at details of it . we don't want to miss anything along the way .Therefore, we will not be surprised by anything. We want to use the first three months to assess what is happening . and if we need to change in order to improve we will do that...," he said.
He identified the conduct of the recent under-20 world cup qualifying campaign as an example of the kind of error that will not be repeated. Needing to beat Haiti in a two-way tie to qualify for the CONCACAF round of qualifiers, the Jamaicans failed to prepare properly and most damningly, failed to scout the Haitians who eventually edged them out.
"I want to treat the under-20s as a learning experience.," said Brown. He claimed that errors made by the coaching staff during the under-20 campaign flowed from the realisation that the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) lacked resources. As a result, he explained, basic demands that should have been made of the governing body were not made.
"I have already said to the president that we (coaches) are never again going to find any excuse for not demanding the things that we know are necessary and then at the end of the day we have to take the blame for that ... We probably sat there as coaches and were saying that JFF don't have any funds and we were looking at ways and means to try and make the (under-20) programme work ... Well clearly it didn't work so we're going to make sure it never happens again ...
"I will never again give the JFF president the opportunity to say that we didn't ask. We're going to ask and we're going to demand .," he said.
For 2003, Brown who as de facto technical director over the past year established an enviable and unprecedented record of 10 unbeaten games away from home including draws against Japan and Nigeria, says he is aiming for at least 20 games, home and away.
He welcomed news that the National Stadium will be available next month, starting with the friendly match against the United States. And that FIFA funding, US$400,000 for the long-awaited football training centre, is now on track.
Brown spoke animatedly about the kind of facilities he thinks should come about as a result of what he hopes will be a partnership of the relevant stakeholders in providing the training centre.
"The Government we are certain will come on board in providing the land which again will give us a great start. Hopefully by the end of this year, once the money is granted that we (JFF) will fast track the training centre," said Brown.
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Karl |
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Carl Brown looks ahead
