I expected more from our U-20s

[Sickko]

I expected more from our U-20s
On The Sporting Edge
Paul Reid
Thursday, March 12, 2009

Not even an hour after the West Indies' euphoric nail-biting escape to win their Test series against England, we were jolted back to earth with scores coming from the CONCACAF Under-20 final tournament in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Jamaican team had rallied like true warriors to put themselves into a position to advance to the FIFA World Championships in Egypt with a win against Honduras in their final game.

After losing 3-0 to the United States in their first game, the Young Boyz came from a goal down to beat El Salvador 2-1 with just nine players.
With such a courageous performance, achieved without two of the more experienced players who were disqualified after getting red cards in the previous game and despite the result against the Americans, it was not a stretch to expect a positive result.

What happened on Tuesday afternoon was like a sucker punch in the stomach. It knocked the winds out of our systems.

No way did we expect to be beaten 4-0, ending, once again, yet another dream of World Cup participation.

Hardly any expense was spared to help this team prepare for the tournament and practice matches were arranged against top teams both here and in the United States.

It could be argued that this team got more help than even the senior Reggae Boyz in their World Cup build-up, and someone must give a proper explanation to the nation and the sponsors as to the debacle in Trinidad.
Alarms were raised when the coaching staff was still looking for players two months before the tournament. as this spoke to the ad-hoc approach to the preparations.

The team had been in preparation for more than a year and if the coaching staff were still not satisfied with the talent available then, what were we to expect?

No fewer then seven new players were looked at less then two weeks before the first game and the question must be asked as to why so many were invited in the first place.

I had serious problems with the choice of Donovan Duckie -a man with a one-page resume - as the coach of this team.

Duckie coached St George's United from the Portland League to the Premier League and was fired after the owners of the club felt he was not spending enough time with the club because of his duties with the national team. He was then hired by Premier league club Portmore United to oversee their entire football operation then quit months later to be closer to his child.

Nowhere in this do I see any reason why he should have been hired for this job but I am sure there are some who would like to tell me I should shut up because I don't understand international football.

[Hortical]

No fewer then seven new players were looked at less then two weeks before the first game and the question must be asked as to why so many were invited in the first place.

This was a shocker to me, but some thought this would not negatively impact the team. The man is not qualified to coach a national team, but if you say that, some say we are overly negative towards local coaches.

[Me]

This was a shocker to me, but some thought this would not negatively impact the team. The man is not qualified to coach a national team, but if you say that, some say we are overly negative towards local coaches.

And I still don't think that had much of an impact on anything. Sappleton was the only one who played a part so I think one would either have to blame coach, preparation or talent level. Most of the players seem to be okay individually and the preparation was as good as we have seen in a decade.

[Jangle]

Which other local coach should have been in charge in your opinion?

[Gamma]

well nix preparation.....talent level seemed fine...so what are we left with?

[HL]

John Barnes

...whooooops --local koach he said...

[Karl]

btw - I do not know when Duckie got so much 'coaching' support or how long he had so much support...but in Florida he had 4 other members of the technical staff assessing and assisting.

[Hortical]

Boss, Whitmore has proven himself at the international level. If not him, then get a foreign coach with qualifications.

[Jangle]

I was expecting that answer. Of course you realise that that wasn't practical given the fact that Whitmore was with the senior team for a year while Duckie had the U20 for the same period. Duckie was getting results playing lesser teams. He even admitted that point that the team was never in the position where they had to come from behind prior to this round. That means that the quality of the opposing teams in those many practise matches were below par. That means that the JFF failed our youths in not providing quality teams to practise against, and Duckie also failed in not demanding better opponents.

I get very annoyed when I see people make idle comments about this coach should be in charge or that coach should be in charge or we need to a foreign coach. We are a poor country with extremely talented people. I too get frustrated when our teams don't do well internationally because we all know that we have the raw talent, and with some guidance, we can be world beaters. If we had even a quarter of the resources that the US or Mexico have, we would undoubtably be kings of CONCACAF. But the reality is that we don't have those resources so we have to feed one child and starve the other. Another reality is that our local coaches just are not good enough, including Theodore Whitmore.

Whitmore may have won us some matches, but those matches were won on sheer grit, determination and natural talent and speed of our players. Whitmore did not do anything great, tactically, and Canada and Honduras were in the same boat as us in terms of their "internationally inexperienced" coaches. Mexico, on the other hand, has been on a downturn ever since the US beat them in the Gold Cup finals some years ago, and Costa Rica beat them in the Azteca. Their federation is not stable and there are factions within the federation and the team itself which opposed Sven Erikkson. Mexico will struggle to qualify. Whitmore is not of international standard and neither is any of our teams.

A local coach will never carry us to the Promise Land, at least not in say 10 years. That is because he will never get the respect and support of the administration and the players to change how we approach the game mentally. If the only local name we can throw in the hat when we fail internationally, is Geoffery Maxwell, then our cupboard is barer than Old Mother Hubbard. If I were to choose a local coach, it would be Carl Brown. To date, he has achieved more than any other local coach.

[Mac]

I know that you have been killing Duckie for some years now for good reason.

But what I saw today in the Observer from D. Duckie just drove me into a rage!!

He was saying that playing Caribbean team was of no value and that more international games were needed. This guy is insane. His U20 team barely beat the other Caribbean teams in the qualifying games and then had more than enough practice games. Where did he take responsibility for his poor preparation techniques and coaching? Where has he taken responsibility for his poor planning in bringing in so many new players in the last game before the qualifying?

In the first place, after this failure Duckie should have resigned. However, if he is not fired then we will have to seriously start qustioning the JFF leadership. Failure should not be rewarded.

Respect

[Gamma]

huh...canada, costa rica, mexico....

[Hortical]

I would not be interested in recycling Carl Brown again, since he failed miserably a few years ago to qualify Jamaica to the Gold Cup and we lost at home to St Vincent & the Grenadines. The most important ting right now is fi get a qualified and competent coach, and Duckie was not up to the task.

[Jangle]

Again, neither you nor anyone else here who is calling for Duckie's head is offering a sensible alternative to him. You are all talking off your emotions.