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Let's support the Reggae Boyz - full hundred
Saturday, June 14, 2008
It happens every so often in sports: the underdogs, most times fuelled by their desire to win and the reality that they have very little to lose, put in the performance of their lives to upset the favourites.
That, we believe, is what happened on Tuesday when Jamaica's Reggae Boyz went down 1-2 to Grenada in a friendly international football match in St George's, the Grenada capital.
Grenada, readers will recall, are ranked No 143 by FIFA, world football's governing body, and as such are regarded as minnows in the sport. Jamaica, ranked at 98 and with one World Cup final berth under their belt, are the stronger team.
To say that the defeat was humiliating would be putting it mildly. We therefore regard as very candid, the reaction of Mr Rene Simoes, the technical director of Jamaica's national football programme.
"It's a shame, it's unacceptable, we are very upset," Mr Simoes told journalists on the team's arrival from the Eastern Caribbean on Wednesday.
According to Mr Simoes, the Reggae Boyz started the game very well, so much so that Mr Ricardo Fuller opened the scoring for the Jamaicans in the 20th minute.
But two second-half goals by Messrs Sharlie Joseph and Jason Roberts placed the Grenadians ahead, and they held onto that lead until the final whistle.
The Reggae Boyz, Mr Simoes said, made many mistakes and lost their focus. We believe that another element that led to the defeat was that the Jamaicans underestimated the Grenadians and therefore went into the game with very little respect for their opponents.
We therefore share Mr Simoes' view that this defeat is a wake-up call for the team. For as is often said in sports "the ball is round," meaning, as Mr Simoes rightly observed, "anyone can beat anyone". It happens, as we said, very often.
Mr Simoes' job now - with a day to go before Jamaica open their 2010 World Cup campaign against the Bahamas - is, as he said, to get the team to settle down, absorb the lessons from their loss and enter tomorrow's game and, indeed, the second leg next Wednesday confident but not dismissive of their opponents.
It's a delicate balancing act, we accept, but the ability to exude confidence without becoming careless in competition is a characteristic that has transformed sports champions into legends.
That, we submit, is what the Reggae Boyz need to display throughout this campaign to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Of course, the Boyz will need every bit of support they can get from the Jamaican public. As such, we make no apologies in encouraging the country to put the Grenada hiccup behind us and cheer our team on, starting from tomorrow - full hundred.
For even if it's only to acknowledge the historic and socio-political ties between Jamaica and South Africa, the 2010 World Cup Football Finals should not be played in that African nation without our black, green and gold flag being raised at the opening ceremony and beyond.
Let's support the Reggae Boyz - full hundred
Saturday, June 14, 2008
It happens every so often in sports: the underdogs, most times fuelled by their desire to win and the reality that they have very little to lose, put in the performance of their lives to upset the favourites.
That, we believe, is what happened on Tuesday when Jamaica's Reggae Boyz went down 1-2 to Grenada in a friendly international football match in St George's, the Grenada capital.
Grenada, readers will recall, are ranked No 143 by FIFA, world football's governing body, and as such are regarded as minnows in the sport. Jamaica, ranked at 98 and with one World Cup final berth under their belt, are the stronger team.
To say that the defeat was humiliating would be putting it mildly. We therefore regard as very candid, the reaction of Mr Rene Simoes, the technical director of Jamaica's national football programme.
"It's a shame, it's unacceptable, we are very upset," Mr Simoes told journalists on the team's arrival from the Eastern Caribbean on Wednesday.
According to Mr Simoes, the Reggae Boyz started the game very well, so much so that Mr Ricardo Fuller opened the scoring for the Jamaicans in the 20th minute.
But two second-half goals by Messrs Sharlie Joseph and Jason Roberts placed the Grenadians ahead, and they held onto that lead until the final whistle.
The Reggae Boyz, Mr Simoes said, made many mistakes and lost their focus. We believe that another element that led to the defeat was that the Jamaicans underestimated the Grenadians and therefore went into the game with very little respect for their opponents.
We therefore share Mr Simoes' view that this defeat is a wake-up call for the team. For as is often said in sports "the ball is round," meaning, as Mr Simoes rightly observed, "anyone can beat anyone". It happens, as we said, very often.
Mr Simoes' job now - with a day to go before Jamaica open their 2010 World Cup campaign against the Bahamas - is, as he said, to get the team to settle down, absorb the lessons from their loss and enter tomorrow's game and, indeed, the second leg next Wednesday confident but not dismissive of their opponents.
It's a delicate balancing act, we accept, but the ability to exude confidence without becoming careless in competition is a characteristic that has transformed sports champions into legends.
That, we submit, is what the Reggae Boyz need to display throughout this campaign to the World Cup finals in South Africa. Of course, the Boyz will need every bit of support they can get from the Jamaican public. As such, we make no apologies in encouraging the country to put the Grenada hiccup behind us and cheer our team on, starting from tomorrow - full hundred.
For even if it's only to acknowledge the historic and socio-political ties between Jamaica and South Africa, the 2010 World Cup Football Finals should not be played in that African nation without our black, green and gold flag being raised at the opening ceremony and beyond.
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