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SHORT TERM VISION FAILING LOCAL FOOTBALL
The Reggae Boyz go into the World Cup qualifying match against Honduras on a three-match losing streak and chances are that based on how the team has been playing lately, the result will most likely be similar to the last three. Why? We all know the reasons. Ineffective coaching, a lack of quality players, not enough practice games against quality opponents and a general lack of understanding as to what it takes to qualify for a world cup.
Having witnessed failed campaigns for 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012, one has to believe that the 1998 campaign was a fluke. It was the perfect storm of the right players at the right time with the right coach. Since that time however, Jamaica has seen failure after failure after failure. We can blame coaches, we can blame players or the lack of resources, but ultimately we have to lay the blame at the feet of the people who administrate over football and sport in general in Jamaica.
Like most other times when things go right in Jamaica we have failed to strike while the iron was hot. Using the euphoria of ’98 when there were so many passionate players in the Jamaican squad, players like the late Peter Cargill, Shorty Malcolm, Walter Boyd, Deon Burton, Paul Hall, and Theodore Whitmore, who connected with the people, the Jamaica Football Federation and the Government could have used the opportunity to restructure local football in such a way that we would have been reaping the benefits now, 15 years later as the island is about to bow out of another campaign. This will be another crash and burn and once again no one will be held accountable.
Had Jamaica done a comprehensive overhaul of the national programme wherein youngsters en masse would be exposed to the kind of training that would equip them with the requisite skills, there would be opportunity for the very best to be placed in special programmes that would help these youngsters hone their special skills.
Under careful supervision, they would grow to develop into quality players that would eventually be exposed to and attract the best clubs in the world in the very top divisions where those skills could be sharpened and readied for our world cup campaigns. Looking at the current squad, there is not one player there who plays for a top club anywhere in the world. The Jamaican squad is currently comprised of players from our sub-standard Premier League and second and third division clubs across the world. What this tells us is that Jamaica does not possess enough quality players to take on the best in the world and that is what the world cup is all about. Sure, there will be players who will be blessed with the skills but there will never be enough of them to form a deep enough squad for a world cup campaign where injuries and unforeseen circumstances will require the use of an equally talented player, a game changer, from off the bench.
When one looks at the top club teams from across the world, one realizes that it is not just the starting XI that makes them good but also the players they have in reserve. Jamaica does not possess a talented starting XI nor a talented bench, so how do we expect to play and win consistently without the calibre of players being at the disposal of the coaching staff. As it relates to coaching, we would be forced then to hire quality coaches to shape our talented recruits. You can’t use a short order cook to train world class chefs.
So instead of largely depending on recruits, some of whom who would have only heard of Jamaica from stories passed on from previous generations, Jamaica would have had the benefit of cherry picking quality players for all positions when assembling a squad for a campaign such as the one we are currently engaged in. But that is not what has happened and is why we are now languishing at the bottom of the Hexagonal Round with only two of a maximum 15 points.
There will be the cry that Jamaica did not have the resources but consider this. Had the JFF with support from Government said to corporate Jamaica and to FIFA, “Look, we want to build a programme, here is our plan. We want to qualify for the 2010 World Cup but we have to start now,” money could have been raised to implement the system we needed to make good things happen. The problem, as it is with all things in this country is that we only live for now totally disregarding the future. That’s bad planning and where we fail to plan we plan to fail and that is what we are doing in this campaign; failing.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=1954
The Reggae Boyz go into the World Cup qualifying match against Honduras on a three-match losing streak and chances are that based on how the team has been playing lately, the result will most likely be similar to the last three. Why? We all know the reasons. Ineffective coaching, a lack of quality players, not enough practice games against quality opponents and a general lack of understanding as to what it takes to qualify for a world cup.
Having witnessed failed campaigns for 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012, one has to believe that the 1998 campaign was a fluke. It was the perfect storm of the right players at the right time with the right coach. Since that time however, Jamaica has seen failure after failure after failure. We can blame coaches, we can blame players or the lack of resources, but ultimately we have to lay the blame at the feet of the people who administrate over football and sport in general in Jamaica.
Like most other times when things go right in Jamaica we have failed to strike while the iron was hot. Using the euphoria of ’98 when there were so many passionate players in the Jamaican squad, players like the late Peter Cargill, Shorty Malcolm, Walter Boyd, Deon Burton, Paul Hall, and Theodore Whitmore, who connected with the people, the Jamaica Football Federation and the Government could have used the opportunity to restructure local football in such a way that we would have been reaping the benefits now, 15 years later as the island is about to bow out of another campaign. This will be another crash and burn and once again no one will be held accountable.
Had Jamaica done a comprehensive overhaul of the national programme wherein youngsters en masse would be exposed to the kind of training that would equip them with the requisite skills, there would be opportunity for the very best to be placed in special programmes that would help these youngsters hone their special skills.
Under careful supervision, they would grow to develop into quality players that would eventually be exposed to and attract the best clubs in the world in the very top divisions where those skills could be sharpened and readied for our world cup campaigns. Looking at the current squad, there is not one player there who plays for a top club anywhere in the world. The Jamaican squad is currently comprised of players from our sub-standard Premier League and second and third division clubs across the world. What this tells us is that Jamaica does not possess enough quality players to take on the best in the world and that is what the world cup is all about. Sure, there will be players who will be blessed with the skills but there will never be enough of them to form a deep enough squad for a world cup campaign where injuries and unforeseen circumstances will require the use of an equally talented player, a game changer, from off the bench.
When one looks at the top club teams from across the world, one realizes that it is not just the starting XI that makes them good but also the players they have in reserve. Jamaica does not possess a talented starting XI nor a talented bench, so how do we expect to play and win consistently without the calibre of players being at the disposal of the coaching staff. As it relates to coaching, we would be forced then to hire quality coaches to shape our talented recruits. You can’t use a short order cook to train world class chefs.
So instead of largely depending on recruits, some of whom who would have only heard of Jamaica from stories passed on from previous generations, Jamaica would have had the benefit of cherry picking quality players for all positions when assembling a squad for a campaign such as the one we are currently engaged in. But that is not what has happened and is why we are now languishing at the bottom of the Hexagonal Round with only two of a maximum 15 points.
There will be the cry that Jamaica did not have the resources but consider this. Had the JFF with support from Government said to corporate Jamaica and to FIFA, “Look, we want to build a programme, here is our plan. We want to qualify for the 2010 World Cup but we have to start now,” money could have been raised to implement the system we needed to make good things happen. The problem, as it is with all things in this country is that we only live for now totally disregarding the future. That’s bad planning and where we fail to plan we plan to fail and that is what we are doing in this campaign; failing.
http://gleanerblogs.com/sports/?p=1954
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