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It is one thing to deceive others but worse yet is when we deceive ourselves about what we do, actual performance and review of performance.
Lots of people think improvements come with money and resources and that helps but what I see especially with this last u20 and u17 is a lack of discipline and a lack of adherence to fundamentals. I am not sure where it comes from but there is a strong sense in jamaican football circles that football is a game only played with the ball at foot and there is a whole other half of the game where it is not at foot that bawls for revolutionary change this is where we will get our greatest improvement.
In the last Ja versus Cuba game the boys played well on the attack side, five clear shots, five shots on goal where the goalie made a save, great stuff, however the inferior opponent had six virtually uncontested shots with three on goal, in the six shots however a by the Cubans we had ample opportunity to crush those attacks long before the shot opportunity and our boyz were not fit enough, not disciplined enough, not hungry enough, not coached enough to challenge and contests these runs and strikers in totally open positions to get clear shots on goal.
24 th minute Cuban uncontested pass to a unmarked man who outpaced our defender to get off a shot that should have scored.
37th minute Cuban pass inside the box to top of the box to unmarked man who shot uncontested at goal.
Cuban goal at 46th minute defender had no clue where man was, tried to close in a halfhearted kind of way, a symbolic loose legged kick with no intent, Cuban passed to an unmarked man running loose in box who got of uncontested shot except for goalie attempt.
47th minute, uncontested mid running free and a through pass to a striker spilling two defenders for uncontested incredible shot on goal which he totally messed up, should have scored there.
73rd minute, ball at top of 18 box, Cuban free, man on ball free closest man 5 yards off, he does not attempt a tackle but trails off to right without aim, next closest defender ten yards deep in box comes out to contest, leaving striker to the right and behind total free, Cuban dribbler holds ball to defender is close, passes to free striker running in a Sahara desert worth of space free in the box, other defender tries to close late number eight, actually makes an impact and shot is way off, good last minute defending there but multiple mistakes before.
80th minute gets toasted by Cuban running to goal line after having a ten yard advantage, he does not Marshall his ball over goal line for a kick, the Cuban bodies him off the ball, picks the ball and crosses the ball to solo striker in the box with closest defender ten yards off, goalie has to make a great save.
Cuba could easily have won this match going away with better finishers, we were good in attack but faced a hot Cuban keeper as well.
Bottom line our team and individual defense is very bad, very lackadaisical, we must call it what it is, no way can a national team with the best players play with such nonchalant style especially in the attackers final third, no support no thought no energy, just poor.
A few cold hard facts for the touchy feely emotion, gut feelings driven non stats using people amongst us.
Overall here are the stats on shots taken and goals scored for the tournament, most shots is USA with 50 and 11 goals converting at a 22 percent clip, Mexico has 46 shots and scored ten converting at 21.76 percent, jamaica has third most shots at 39 scoring three, yes three that is a 7.7percent scoring rate, atrocious to say the least, panama had 38 shots with 14 goals the best so far in terms of conversion at 36percent, Costa Rica has 31 shots and scored ten, conversion rate of 32 percent?
Sesame Street question of the day, which of these conversion rates is not like the others, yes, yes jamaica at 7.7 percent we are poor, poor, is there a word worse than poor, I can't think of it, ok maybe pitiful, Pxxs poor. Those words still not good enough to convey how bad our conversion rate is.
Also to top it off, we score highest in fouls committed at 44, yes, at least we top the charts in something.
All just described don't need no money, just time, commitment and effort, better selection of players who hunger for an opportunity to shine.
What more is there to say, let's stop deceiving ourselves and really give real feedback on the poor performance from an overall standpoint, this team may make the playoff but it is ill prepared mentally to fight and get a result in such a format, a lot of work needs to be done.
Lots of people think improvements come with money and resources and that helps but what I see especially with this last u20 and u17 is a lack of discipline and a lack of adherence to fundamentals. I am not sure where it comes from but there is a strong sense in jamaican football circles that football is a game only played with the ball at foot and there is a whole other half of the game where it is not at foot that bawls for revolutionary change this is where we will get our greatest improvement.
In the last Ja versus Cuba game the boys played well on the attack side, five clear shots, five shots on goal where the goalie made a save, great stuff, however the inferior opponent had six virtually uncontested shots with three on goal, in the six shots however a by the Cubans we had ample opportunity to crush those attacks long before the shot opportunity and our boyz were not fit enough, not disciplined enough, not hungry enough, not coached enough to challenge and contests these runs and strikers in totally open positions to get clear shots on goal.
24 th minute Cuban uncontested pass to a unmarked man who outpaced our defender to get off a shot that should have scored.
37th minute Cuban pass inside the box to top of the box to unmarked man who shot uncontested at goal.
Cuban goal at 46th minute defender had no clue where man was, tried to close in a halfhearted kind of way, a symbolic loose legged kick with no intent, Cuban passed to an unmarked man running loose in box who got of uncontested shot except for goalie attempt.
47th minute, uncontested mid running free and a through pass to a striker spilling two defenders for uncontested incredible shot on goal which he totally messed up, should have scored there.
73rd minute, ball at top of 18 box, Cuban free, man on ball free closest man 5 yards off, he does not attempt a tackle but trails off to right without aim, next closest defender ten yards deep in box comes out to contest, leaving striker to the right and behind total free, Cuban dribbler holds ball to defender is close, passes to free striker running in a Sahara desert worth of space free in the box, other defender tries to close late number eight, actually makes an impact and shot is way off, good last minute defending there but multiple mistakes before.
80th minute gets toasted by Cuban running to goal line after having a ten yard advantage, he does not Marshall his ball over goal line for a kick, the Cuban bodies him off the ball, picks the ball and crosses the ball to solo striker in the box with closest defender ten yards off, goalie has to make a great save.
Cuba could easily have won this match going away with better finishers, we were good in attack but faced a hot Cuban keeper as well.
Bottom line our team and individual defense is very bad, very lackadaisical, we must call it what it is, no way can a national team with the best players play with such nonchalant style especially in the attackers final third, no support no thought no energy, just poor.
A few cold hard facts for the touchy feely emotion, gut feelings driven non stats using people amongst us.
Overall here are the stats on shots taken and goals scored for the tournament, most shots is USA with 50 and 11 goals converting at a 22 percent clip, Mexico has 46 shots and scored ten converting at 21.76 percent, jamaica has third most shots at 39 scoring three, yes three that is a 7.7percent scoring rate, atrocious to say the least, panama had 38 shots with 14 goals the best so far in terms of conversion at 36percent, Costa Rica has 31 shots and scored ten, conversion rate of 32 percent?
Sesame Street question of the day, which of these conversion rates is not like the others, yes, yes jamaica at 7.7 percent we are poor, poor, is there a word worse than poor, I can't think of it, ok maybe pitiful, Pxxs poor. Those words still not good enough to convey how bad our conversion rate is.
Also to top it off, we score highest in fouls committed at 44, yes, at least we top the charts in something.
All just described don't need no money, just time, commitment and effort, better selection of players who hunger for an opportunity to shine.
What more is there to say, let's stop deceiving ourselves and really give real feedback on the poor performance from an overall standpoint, this team may make the playoff but it is ill prepared mentally to fight and get a result in such a format, a lot of work needs to be done.
You are on point. Glad to have you tell it like it is. 
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