A Lame Excuse

[Farmah]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=450 align=left border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> <TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Why were the Reggae Boyz unfit?</SPAN>
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Saturday, October 07, 2006
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Those who believe that the recent defeat by St Vincent and the Grenadines in the failed Digicel Caribbean Cup campaign was a new low in Jamaica's football should check their facts and think again.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The records will show that Jamaica's football has, on a number of occasions in the past, had reason to be less than pleased with itself following meetings with so-called "lesser" opposition from the Caribbean.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In 1994, for example, Jamaica paid the price for a massive quarrel involving administrators, players and coach - exiting the Caribbean Cup with a 3-2 loss to the Cayman Islands. The irony was that just before that, Jamaica, with its morale high under the guidance of an inspired Mr Carl Brown, had shocked the entire region by placing third in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Five years earlier at the dawning of the Caribbean Cup, Jamaicans were left badly shaken after a winless campaign involving defeats by Guadeloupe and Antigua &amp; Barbuda and draws with St Lucia and Dominica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Therefore, given the historical facts and the reality that the team would have been without its top overseas-based professionals, there could have been no excuse for the Reggae Boyz - guided yet again by Mr Brown as interim coach - to be complacent entering the recent Digicel Caribbean Cup campaign.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Yet, we are left with no option but to conclude that there was indeed a considerable level of complacency.
How else to explain the assertion by Coach Brown himself and knowledgeable observers that the Jamaicans lost out because of a lack of physical conditioning.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Physically the team is not in good shape and that's simply the reason why the team wasn't able to go through the entire 90 minutes doing what we started out doing," Mr Brown was quoted as saying at the end of the campaign.
This because "the team assembled pretty late for training," Mr Brown added.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Mr Brown used attacking midfielder Mr Fabian Dawkins as an example, claiming that the player had not played for three weeks and was brought into the team, short of match fitness.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In fact, three weeks before the start of the Digicel Caribbean Cup's first round in Kingston, on September 5 to be exact, Mr Dawkins was part of a Reggae Boyz squad that went down 0-1 to Canada in Montreal. There was no suggestion then that the Reggae Boyz squad in Canada, made up mostly of local-based players, was unfit. In fact, news reports suggested that the Jamaica team played better in the second half of their game with Canada than they did in the first.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It seems logical that the Reggae Boyz would have been in significantly better physical condition three weeks later, as they took to the field to defend their title as champions of the Digicel Caribbean Cup.<P class=StoryText align=justify>That, they were not, is seemingly related to Mr Brown's explanation that his squad "assembled pretty late for training". The question we have to ask is 'why was that?' Why was there not a continuous camp for the local-based Reggae Boyz - even while taking into account their Premier League club commitments - following the friendly international in Canada?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Those are questions that Mr Crenston Boxhill's Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), now said to be in the final stages of contracting a high profile overseas

[Karl]

RE: A Lame Excuse

It is strange that the posters who saw the three CFU matches gave no comment on whether or not the Reggae Boyz performed better in the first or second half of the matches as cklaimed by CB?

mmmm????

[Karl]

RE: A Lame Excuse

...three weeks before the start of the Digicel Caribbean Cup's first round in Kingston, on September 5 to be exact, Mr Dawkins was part of a Reggae Boyz squad that went down 0-1 to Canada in Montreal. There was no suggestion then that the Reggae Boyz squad in Canada, made up mostly of local-based players, was unfit. In fact, news reports suggested that the Jamaica team played better in the second half of their game with Canada than they did in the first.<P class=StoryText align=justify>It seems logical that the Reggae Boyz would have been in significantly better physical condition three weeks later, as they took to the field to defend their title as champions of the Digicel Caribbean Cup.<P class=StoryText align=justify>That, they were not, is seemingly related to Mr Brown's explanation that his squad "assembled pretty late for training". The question we have to ask is 'why was that?' Why was there not a continuous camp for the local-based Reggae Boyz - even while taking into account their Premier League club commitments - following the friendly international in Canada?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Those are questions that Mr Crenston Boxhill's Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), now said to be in the final stages of contracting a high profile overseas coach, as well as Mr Carl Brown need to answer.<P class=StoryText align=justify>

<P class=StoryText align=justify>Seem to remember many posts from posters here...pleading for continuous match-ready/continuous match fit...REGGAE BOYZ?! <P class=StoryText align=justify>...mmmmm????<P class=StoryText align=justify>Even the Observer now believes that makes sense!