U-20 coach warns against taking regional teams lightly

Despite being heavily favoured to top Group F of the Concacaf Under-20 qualifiers, Jamaica’s coach, John Wall, says he has learnt not to take teams in the region lightly.

Grenada, Martinique, and Bermuda are the other teams in Group F, and Wall pointed out that smaller teams have reduced the gap between themselves and the bigger nations and that no team can be underestimated. He also noted that their opponents also have ties to big European countries, which provide them with quality professional players.

“Obviously, there are no simple games in Concacaf. I have learnt that first-hand and bear that in mind with Grenada, Martinique and Bermuda.

“The trend overall in Concacaf is that the game is getting more global. Martinique have a relationship with France, and Grenada and Bermuda with the United Kingdom, predominantly,” Wall said.

He added that a lot of effort has gone into getting the players in tune with what he requires but noted that there are many variables to consider in constructing a competitive unit with the talent at their disposal.

“We take it very seriously, and we have been having camps since March of this year, trying to ingrain more values. We are watching the players, identifying them, and see who is what.

“For me, qualifiers are a special kind of animal, and you have to take certain things into account - the amount of game in the short space of time, players coming in, you have time zone differences. You have the heat and other types of factors. So we want to make all those external factors more internal and control the variables as much as we can and set the tone,” he said.

Wall has already sent his preparation programme to the technical committee, It is now being reviewed, and he intends to use the time between now and February to get the team performing at its optimum with international practice games over the period.

“For us, it is optimising the time that we have. The upcoming FIFA window is an opportunity and how we go about things in December and January.

“The main point for me is what has been done in the past is a lot of weeks spent in the camps, and my view is players accumulated too much fatigue going into tournaments,” he said.

QUALIFICATION CYCLE

He added that the intention is to set a programme that will make Jamaica a force to be reckoned with in any qualification cycle.

“My intention and vision that is shared with national team coach Heimir Hallgrimsson is that Jamaica can consistently be, instead of every now and then, always punching above its weight.

“But we have to narrow it down to what we are, what we repeatedly do, and what we can do,” he stated.

After round-robin play between February 23 and March 2, the first-place team from each of the six groups will advance to the 2024 Concacaf Men’s Under-20 Championship, joining the six pre-seeded top-ranked nations.

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com