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'Mission accomplished'
Boxhill says Asian tour met objectives
Ian Burnett, Sports Editor
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
BOXHILL... I'm not overly concerned about FIFA rankings
Tehran, Iran - Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has defended the just concluded Asian tour by Jamaica's senior team, saying he believes the objectives of the tour were met, despite the team losing three of the four games played.
"Yes, I think we achieve the objectives on both sides of the coin," Boxhill told the Observer yesterday, a day after the team was trounced 8-1 by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the fourth and final match here in Tehran.
"Now the coach knows exactly who can and will be a part of his plan going forward," added the JFF boss.
"What was also encouraging from this tour was the find of a few players, including a member of the Under-20 squad, who made the transition to the senior team with some distinction."
Jamaica opened the four-nation tour with a 1-2 loss to Indonesia under difficult circumstances, then followed up with a 0-3 defeat to Vietnam. They then turned back Malaysia 2-0 for their only win of the tour, before the annihilation against a rampant Iranian outfit.
But the JFF boss was unwavering in his belief that the national programme was on track.
"The objective of this tour was a part of the whole plan that the technical director (Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic) has as it relates to putting the squad together for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers starting some time next year.
"He has said on many occasions that it is an ongoing process with the end product being the final squad for that campaign. The squad on this tour is the best group of players locally and the coach thought it would be fair to give them as many opportunities as possible to impress him and become a part of the squad."
Since taking over the reins last November, Bora has been having a local-based squad in camp on and off for the past few months, starting with the victorious tournament in Hong Kong and continuing with the final game in Jamaica against Chile in early June.
"This Asian tour was an important part of the process as it gave the coach the chance to see the players in a series of high quality international games away from home in what could be sometimes seen as a hostile environment, as opposed to one-off games in much friendlier conditions," added Boxhill.
He said that at the end of the tour Bora "would have been able to identify the number of players who would continue to be a part of that process".
But Boxhill admitted that the results of the tour matches cannot be downplayed, "especially that of the last game, which was embarrassing".
"The tour itself was a difficult one in the sense that it was tiring, fairly long and the rest period in between games was inadequate," lamented Boxhill, a member of the 28-man delegation.
"We all knew that from day one, the coach, the players, everybody. When you consider that they travelled in excess of 40 hours from Kingston to Jakarta (Indonesia), and played a game within 24 hours, then that speaks for itself."
The delegation had to leave the hotel at 4 o' clock the next morning for a six-hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, where they got less than 48 hours rest before they faced that nation.
Immediately after that they had to get on a four-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they got a two-to-three-day break before they played that team.
They then left shortly after that game to travel seven hours to Tehran, Iran, to play what was always going to be the toughest opposition, especially at the back end of the gruelling tour.
Iran are highly ranked and are favoured to win the Asian Cup for the fourth time, "so it was really a tough tour, considering that every opponent we played was less than two weeks away from the major tournament in their Confederation. We played against teams that were very sharp, were at full strength, and some of them had players coming in from Europe," said Boxhill.
"Having said that, what was disappointing to me was that I was expecting to see some more commitment, some more fight from some of the players. I could see that some of them were working overtime and putting everything into the game, but I didn't think we got that from everybody.
"Nobody likes to lose, especially the way we did last night (Monday night), but if we lose fighting, if we lose giving a hundred per cent, and if we lose giving our all for our country and you could see the pride and the passion and the commitment coming from every player on the field, then it would make the loss a little easier to accept," charged Boxhill.
Despite the embarrassing defeat, he said the JFF has to find a way to keep a local-based squad together because professional players will not be available for every game Jamaica will play in the future.
"If we had come to Asia with all the professionals, then some of these players, like the Under-20 rookie, would not have got a chance to express himself, the poor results notwithstanding."
The JFF president was also unperturbed about the possibility of the country falling in the FIFA rankings.
"At this time I am not overly concerned about the FIFA rankings because the process is on track and I am quite positive that as it picks up momentum, the rankings will respond accordingly.
"And as it relates to attracting friendly internationals, I think we have the contacts, I think we have what it takes to attract good quality internationals, which has been proven. Already we have started to make arrangements for the FIFA dates ahead, when the process will intensify," he said.
Boxhill says Asian tour met objectives
Ian Burnett, Sports Editor
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
BOXHILL... I'm not overly concerned about FIFA rankings
Tehran, Iran - Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), has defended the just concluded Asian tour by Jamaica's senior team, saying he believes the objectives of the tour were met, despite the team losing three of the four games played.
"Yes, I think we achieve the objectives on both sides of the coin," Boxhill told the Observer yesterday, a day after the team was trounced 8-1 by the Islamic Republic of Iran in the fourth and final match here in Tehran.
"Now the coach knows exactly who can and will be a part of his plan going forward," added the JFF boss.
"What was also encouraging from this tour was the find of a few players, including a member of the Under-20 squad, who made the transition to the senior team with some distinction."
Jamaica opened the four-nation tour with a 1-2 loss to Indonesia under difficult circumstances, then followed up with a 0-3 defeat to Vietnam. They then turned back Malaysia 2-0 for their only win of the tour, before the annihilation against a rampant Iranian outfit.
But the JFF boss was unwavering in his belief that the national programme was on track.
"The objective of this tour was a part of the whole plan that the technical director (Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic) has as it relates to putting the squad together for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers starting some time next year.
"He has said on many occasions that it is an ongoing process with the end product being the final squad for that campaign. The squad on this tour is the best group of players locally and the coach thought it would be fair to give them as many opportunities as possible to impress him and become a part of the squad."
Since taking over the reins last November, Bora has been having a local-based squad in camp on and off for the past few months, starting with the victorious tournament in Hong Kong and continuing with the final game in Jamaica against Chile in early June.
"This Asian tour was an important part of the process as it gave the coach the chance to see the players in a series of high quality international games away from home in what could be sometimes seen as a hostile environment, as opposed to one-off games in much friendlier conditions," added Boxhill.
He said that at the end of the tour Bora "would have been able to identify the number of players who would continue to be a part of that process".
But Boxhill admitted that the results of the tour matches cannot be downplayed, "especially that of the last game, which was embarrassing".
"The tour itself was a difficult one in the sense that it was tiring, fairly long and the rest period in between games was inadequate," lamented Boxhill, a member of the 28-man delegation.
"We all knew that from day one, the coach, the players, everybody. When you consider that they travelled in excess of 40 hours from Kingston to Jakarta (Indonesia), and played a game within 24 hours, then that speaks for itself."
The delegation had to leave the hotel at 4 o' clock the next morning for a six-hour flight to Hanoi, Vietnam, where they got less than 48 hours rest before they faced that nation.
Immediately after that they had to get on a four-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where they got a two-to-three-day break before they played that team.
They then left shortly after that game to travel seven hours to Tehran, Iran, to play what was always going to be the toughest opposition, especially at the back end of the gruelling tour.
Iran are highly ranked and are favoured to win the Asian Cup for the fourth time, "so it was really a tough tour, considering that every opponent we played was less than two weeks away from the major tournament in their Confederation. We played against teams that were very sharp, were at full strength, and some of them had players coming in from Europe," said Boxhill.
"Having said that, what was disappointing to me was that I was expecting to see some more commitment, some more fight from some of the players. I could see that some of them were working overtime and putting everything into the game, but I didn't think we got that from everybody.
"Nobody likes to lose, especially the way we did last night (Monday night), but if we lose fighting, if we lose giving a hundred per cent, and if we lose giving our all for our country and you could see the pride and the passion and the commitment coming from every player on the field, then it would make the loss a little easier to accept," charged Boxhill.
Despite the embarrassing defeat, he said the JFF has to find a way to keep a local-based squad together because professional players will not be available for every game Jamaica will play in the future.
"If we had come to Asia with all the professionals, then some of these players, like the Under-20 rookie, would not have got a chance to express himself, the poor results notwithstanding."
The JFF president was also unperturbed about the possibility of the country falling in the FIFA rankings.
"At this time I am not overly concerned about the FIFA rankings because the process is on track and I am quite positive that as it picks up momentum, the rankings will respond accordingly.
"And as it relates to attracting friendly internationals, I think we have the contacts, I think we have what it takes to attract good quality internationals, which has been proven. Already we have started to make arrangements for the FIFA dates ahead, when the process will intensify," he said.
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