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'Tappa' says Boyz never turned up
IAN BURNETT @ THE CONCACAF GOLD CUP in USA
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Los Angeles, USA - A dejected-looking Theodore Whitmore, head coach of the national senior football team, blamed Friday's opening round CONCACAF Gold Cup loss to Canada at the Home Depot Centre on players failing to give of their best.
The former Jamaican star player and two-goal hero at the France 1998 World Cup Finals also charged his senior players with not turning up on the day, as Jamaica went bottom of the four-team Group A tournament.
Los Angeles, USA - Canada's Simeon Jackson (left) and Jamaica's O'Neil Thompson battle for the ball during their Gold Cup football match at the Home Depot Centre on Friday night. Canada won the game, 1-0. (Photo: AP)
In the day's second game, El Salvador, energised by more than 90 per cent of the 27,000-plus spectators inside the stadium, edged group favourites Costa Rica 2-1 in an entertaining, free-flowing game to move to joint leadership with Canada on three points.
The two losers meet in the opening game on Tuesday at the Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, while the group leaders meet in the other.
"It's a very disappointing result. We didn't play well," bemoaned Whitmore at game's end, before adding: "Our defensive aspect, our attacking aspect, overall as a team, from back to front, I don't think we gave it our best. I think we have more that we could've offered, but as I say, it's football, we just have to move on."
Jamaica appeared to have been in control of the game without being overly dominant and created the better goal-scoring chances throughout, including a one-on-one opportunity by Ricardo Fuller in the second half, but fell to Ali Gerba's 75th-minute strike and just could not recover.
But senior players such as captain Ricardo Gardner, who, understandably, was playing his first competitive game in a few months, having just recovered from injury, along with strikers Fuller and Luton Shelton were well short of their best form throughout the match.
"I don't think the team did well in the first half and when we came out in the second half, we got our chances and we didn't put them away. I don't think our senior players, who we were looking forward to, turned up today . they didn't give us what we were looking for, but that's part of football, we just have to look and see where we went wrong and move on," Whitmore further noted.
Nonetheless, the coach, who was losing his first game in 10 outings at the helm of the Reggae Boyz team, believes Friday's loss could prove the medicine that propels the team forward.
"It could be a wake-up call," he said, "because I didn't see the aggression from our team. When you looked at a Rodolph Austin this afternoon, I don't think Rodolph was on top of his game".
After a cagey start by both teams, Fuller sparked the game into life when he blasted a left-footed shot high and wide of the goal frame after Jamaica had put together a decent build-up involving at least four players.
Shortly after, Gardner had a glorious chance to give Jamaica the lead when he received a neat pass on the edge of the opponents' penalty box, but the skipper's weak, side-footed effort was easily smothered by a grateful Greg Sutton in goal.
The black, green and gold standard bearers went even closer shortly afterwards when Johnson, who terrified the Canadians with his mesmerising dribbles, floated past a hapless defender and drove a left footer which scraped Sutton's right hand post, with the goalkeeper well and truly beaten.
At the other end, goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was called on to tip a Kevin McKenna flick-on over the goal frame, and immediately after the restart Ricketts was at his brilliant best to deny substitute Josh Simpson, who was given too much time and space in the centre of the Jamaican penalty area.
Defender Damion Stewart, who, along with Johnson, had missed their flight from the Norman Manley International Airport to Miami last Tuesday, arrived on time in the penalty box to force goalkeeper Greg Sutton into a fine save from point-blank range, and then Shelton should have done better than rush his try at goal after receiving an errant pass from Sutton a few metres outside the goalkeeper's penalty area.
Austin's firm drive on goal was blocked by a defender who gave up his body for the cause of the red and white clad Canadians, and when Fuller muffed his one-on-one chance, coach Stephen Hart would have been convinced that it was the North Americans' day.
Wastefulness oftentimes comes back to haunt and Whitmore would have felt let down when substitute Oneil Thompson needlessly gifted possession away cheaply in midfield after trying the extravagant air pie instead of the simple play and in one swift and decisive move the ball was sprayed from the left flank deep into the Jamaican penalty area and Gerba was on hand to volley home ahead of the retreating Claude Davis.
From afar Friday's substitutions appeared questionable at best, with Gardner, who hadn't played a competitive game in nearly three months, and had admitted to being about 60 per cent match fit 24 hours before the game, was given a full shift, while Johnson, arguably Jamaica's best performer on the pitch outside of Ricketts, was hauled off immediately after the goal, as was Austin, who apparently suffered from cramps.
There was also another view that with both starting striker struggling for a grip on the game, either of the match-fit MLS players could have been introduced, but Whitmore defended his decisions.
"He (Gardner) was one of them out there who was putting in some work. Jermaine Johnson hadn't played for a while and you could see at times again he showed a bit of tiredness," he offered.
"When we gave up that goal that changed the whole picture of the game where we had to force and take out Claude Davis, which we didn't want as we were trying to get the equaliser," he added.
Now, Whitmore admits, is the time to look ahead to Tuesday's now very important contest against Costa Rica, who are currently top of the final round group in the CONCACAF FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa.
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
IAN BURNETT @ THE CONCACAF GOLD CUP in USA
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Los Angeles, USA - A dejected-looking Theodore Whitmore, head coach of the national senior football team, blamed Friday's opening round CONCACAF Gold Cup loss to Canada at the Home Depot Centre on players failing to give of their best.
The former Jamaican star player and two-goal hero at the France 1998 World Cup Finals also charged his senior players with not turning up on the day, as Jamaica went bottom of the four-team Group A tournament.
Los Angeles, USA - Canada's Simeon Jackson (left) and Jamaica's O'Neil Thompson battle for the ball during their Gold Cup football match at the Home Depot Centre on Friday night. Canada won the game, 1-0. (Photo: AP) In the day's second game, El Salvador, energised by more than 90 per cent of the 27,000-plus spectators inside the stadium, edged group favourites Costa Rica 2-1 in an entertaining, free-flowing game to move to joint leadership with Canada on three points.
The two losers meet in the opening game on Tuesday at the Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, while the group leaders meet in the other.
"It's a very disappointing result. We didn't play well," bemoaned Whitmore at game's end, before adding: "Our defensive aspect, our attacking aspect, overall as a team, from back to front, I don't think we gave it our best. I think we have more that we could've offered, but as I say, it's football, we just have to move on."
Jamaica appeared to have been in control of the game without being overly dominant and created the better goal-scoring chances throughout, including a one-on-one opportunity by Ricardo Fuller in the second half, but fell to Ali Gerba's 75th-minute strike and just could not recover.
But senior players such as captain Ricardo Gardner, who, understandably, was playing his first competitive game in a few months, having just recovered from injury, along with strikers Fuller and Luton Shelton were well short of their best form throughout the match.
"I don't think the team did well in the first half and when we came out in the second half, we got our chances and we didn't put them away. I don't think our senior players, who we were looking forward to, turned up today . they didn't give us what we were looking for, but that's part of football, we just have to look and see where we went wrong and move on," Whitmore further noted.
Nonetheless, the coach, who was losing his first game in 10 outings at the helm of the Reggae Boyz team, believes Friday's loss could prove the medicine that propels the team forward.
"It could be a wake-up call," he said, "because I didn't see the aggression from our team. When you looked at a Rodolph Austin this afternoon, I don't think Rodolph was on top of his game".
After a cagey start by both teams, Fuller sparked the game into life when he blasted a left-footed shot high and wide of the goal frame after Jamaica had put together a decent build-up involving at least four players.
Shortly after, Gardner had a glorious chance to give Jamaica the lead when he received a neat pass on the edge of the opponents' penalty box, but the skipper's weak, side-footed effort was easily smothered by a grateful Greg Sutton in goal.
The black, green and gold standard bearers went even closer shortly afterwards when Johnson, who terrified the Canadians with his mesmerising dribbles, floated past a hapless defender and drove a left footer which scraped Sutton's right hand post, with the goalkeeper well and truly beaten.
At the other end, goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts was called on to tip a Kevin McKenna flick-on over the goal frame, and immediately after the restart Ricketts was at his brilliant best to deny substitute Josh Simpson, who was given too much time and space in the centre of the Jamaican penalty area.
Defender Damion Stewart, who, along with Johnson, had missed their flight from the Norman Manley International Airport to Miami last Tuesday, arrived on time in the penalty box to force goalkeeper Greg Sutton into a fine save from point-blank range, and then Shelton should have done better than rush his try at goal after receiving an errant pass from Sutton a few metres outside the goalkeeper's penalty area.
Austin's firm drive on goal was blocked by a defender who gave up his body for the cause of the red and white clad Canadians, and when Fuller muffed his one-on-one chance, coach Stephen Hart would have been convinced that it was the North Americans' day.
Wastefulness oftentimes comes back to haunt and Whitmore would have felt let down when substitute Oneil Thompson needlessly gifted possession away cheaply in midfield after trying the extravagant air pie instead of the simple play and in one swift and decisive move the ball was sprayed from the left flank deep into the Jamaican penalty area and Gerba was on hand to volley home ahead of the retreating Claude Davis.
From afar Friday's substitutions appeared questionable at best, with Gardner, who hadn't played a competitive game in nearly three months, and had admitted to being about 60 per cent match fit 24 hours before the game, was given a full shift, while Johnson, arguably Jamaica's best performer on the pitch outside of Ricketts, was hauled off immediately after the goal, as was Austin, who apparently suffered from cramps.
There was also another view that with both starting striker struggling for a grip on the game, either of the match-fit MLS players could have been introduced, but Whitmore defended his decisions.
"He (Gardner) was one of them out there who was putting in some work. Jermaine Johnson hadn't played for a while and you could see at times again he showed a bit of tiredness," he offered.
"When we gave up that goal that changed the whole picture of the game where we had to force and take out Claude Davis, which we didn't want as we were trying to get the equaliser," he added.
Now, Whitmore admits, is the time to look ahead to Tuesday's now very important contest against Costa Rica, who are currently top of the final round group in the CONCACAF FIFA World Cup Finals in South Africa.
var addthis_pub="jamaicaobserver";
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