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Karl:
U-20s failure to qualify for its FIFA Age Group Championships – Lessons learned!
The facts:
The Under-20 squad is in its fourth week of training and today plays a South Central Confederation Under-20 team at Brancourt in Clarendon. The first stage of qualification for the World Cup will be the Caribbean leg of qualifiers in Cayman. Jamaica will compete in Group B with the hosts, Bermuda and Puerto Rico between July 23-27.
- The Gleaner, Sunday | May 11, 2008
Many of these youngsters were seasoned campaigners drawn from the Inter Secondary Schools Association’s (ISSA’s) school boys competitions and had advanced through competitions at lower levels.
JAMAICAN U-20's MOVE ON TO FINAL CFU ROUND
Nov 24, 2008 at 08:16 AM
Nov 22-08: The Jamaican Under 20 team showed their dominance on Saturday night when their number 19th, Denver Orgil scored two goals in either half to defeat hosts Aruba by 4 to nil at the final whistle. The Jamaican's scored four goals in both their Stage II matches, winning their first match against Antigua and Barbuda 4-1 on November 20th, before going on to clinch the top spot in Group H and qualifying for the Final CFU Stage in January.
- CFU web site - caribbeanfootballunion.org
As has occurred in the past the expected progress through the CFU continued. The question then raised by the fans was; “ Is this evidence of marking time or evidence of progress being made?”
[I]St George's College striker, Kemal Malcolm, said he was not surprised at his call-up to the Junior Reggae Boyz squad for their upcoming Caribbean Football Union (CFU) final stage play-off, which will be held in St Vincent and the Grenadines in two weeks' time.
The Meadhaven United player, who, with 25 goals, capped the leading goalscorer title in the just-concluded ISSA urban area Manning Cup, is one of two new players who have been added to the squad, which has now been upgraded to 27, with the other being St James High's 15-year-old forward, Allan Ottey, who topped the rural area daCosta Cup, with the same number of goals as Malcolm.
'I wasn't totally surprised as I had put in the hard work and was expecting it, but to know that it has actually happened is a great feeling,' said Malcolm, who is 19 and turns 20 late next year.
'My focus at the start of the season was to be the leading goalscorer in the Manning Cup and take it from there.
Opportunity
'Now that it has happened, I plan to make full use of the opportunity by continuing to score goals. I know it will be difficult as there are many other good strikers in the squad, but I plan to give it my best shot,' he added.
Malcolm, as evidenced by his performances in the Manning Cup and the all-island Olivier Shield, in which he scored St George's three goals in their 3-2 aggregate win over St James, has very good pace and an eye for the goal. To make the final squad or even the starting 11, he will have to compete with eight other strikers, including the nimble-footed Ottey and his teammate, Shamar Shelton, brother of national senior striker, Luton.
The others are the impressive Dever Orgill (Vancouver Whitecaps), who netted a four-timer and was Jamaica's leading goalscorer in the previous round of qualifiers, high schoolers McKauly Tulloch (Kingston College), Andre Steele (Bridgeport High) and Digicel Premier League (DPL) campaigners Andre Clennon (Waterhouse FC), Alanzo Adlam (Sporting Central Academy) and Roy Forbes (Arnett Gardens FC).
'I would like to thank my coaches, Neville 'Bertis' Bell and Marcel Gayle for keeping me in good shape mentally and physically and the hope is that I will be able to graduate to bigger and better things in the future,' said Malcolm, who has on his r