Improve Jamaica’s football strategy

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Our senior, intermediary, and junior football players have to get a few things right if they are to become competitive in respected competitions and international tournaments.

The areas of weakness which I have identified across the board are that Jamaican players lack the cardinal skill of ball control and accuracy in ball passing.

I have heard several Jamaican football coaches telling players preparing for significant tournaments to go out and express themselves.

This is foolishness when considered in a scenario where your competitor’s game more often than not is unfolding at such a frenzied pace, leaving you at sea in the best of times, let alone when the sheer pace of the game has the orchestrated intention to induce errors like poor control and wayward passing.

We simply don’t have that luxury.

Jamaican teams need to include in all their post-game statistics the number of inaccurate passes and poor ball control which often result in their opponents getting the ball on a platter to inflict no ends of punishment on us.

These issues are basic to football and have to be corrected so as to set the foundation for dealing with all the other subtleties of the game.

Who wants to challenge me on these observations?

DERRICK D. SIMON