Race against time

WITH THE Concacaf U20 Men’s Championship set to kick off in just over a month’s time, Jamaica coach, Marcel Gayle, is in a race against time to put a competitive team together for the June 18-July 3 tournament.

Gayle, who was assigned to the post in March, has only had a few training camps with the young players and, with the competition fast approaching, would like to have the players for a prolonged period in order to put the best team together.

Financial constraints have meant achieving the goal of a prolonged period of training and getting practice games is an uphill task.

“We have been together about three weeks. We have had a few camps, looking at players but we are still putting the pieces together to fit the puzzle.

“We were hoping that we could have a team at this juncture so we could start to really prepare the team and just focus on fine-tuning things that we need going into the tournament.

“But hopefully everything can fall into place with enough time before the start of the competition,” he said.

“We need more camps, longer camps. I want to see the players more, work with them some more.

“We are now down to weeks before the start of the competition and are just hoping we can get things right. But we would like to have a settled team as soon as possible,” he stated.

Gayle, also the coach of Waterhouse FC, said he is still looking for a centre-forward and a defensive midfielder and will continue looking at both local and overseas-based players.

At the last camp last week, seven overseas players were invited and he disclosed that another set have been invited to the next camp.

Nevertheless, his hope is to have a final squad in the next two to three weeks.

STILL SHORT

“We are still short up front because we do not have an out-and-out number nine and we also want a number six.

“There are a number of other players we are looking at who we think can help us but for now we are mainly looking for a number nine and a number six.

“We have invited players from overseas. At the last camp we had five and others are coming in.

“This is the highest level at this age group. We will be playing against semi-professional and professional players. So hopefully, we can get things together and get it right in a few weeks’ time,” he said.

The U20s will face Premier League outfit Arnett Gardens in a practice game at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex today.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com