Whitmore sizing up competition

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

National senior men's football team head coach, Theodore 'Tappa' Whitmore, is currently in Antigua and Barbuda with the three young schoolboy footballers who were chosen from the Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) clinic to go and witness the Group G round of matches, which will see two of the four participating teams advancing to the finals.

The Reggae Boyz coach is using the opportunity to take a closer look at some of his prospective competition in the finals. On Wednesday, he saw Cuba defeat Dominica 4-1 and hosts Antigua and Barbuda clip Suriname 2-1.

"I have seen one game, so I don't want to use the one game and judge," Whitmore stated. "Cuba looks like a very decent team, but I don't know if it was because they were leading four goals to one at half-time. They seemed to have relaxed a bit in the last half and their opponents came back into the game.

"I think Suriname looks like a pretty decent team as well, but finishing let them down. Come Friday (today) I will have a chance to see what they (the teams) are really made of because with two teams having lost and two winning, I think it will be a very interesting game come this Friday," he added.

Today's matches will see Suriname playing Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda tackling Dominica.

Whitmore believes that it is more challenging to play our Caribbean neighbours than even our South American counterparts, due to the level of rivalry in the region.

"We have to get in our players heads and get them prepared and ready to go and battle in the Digicel Caribbean Cup. It doesn't really matter who the Jamaica team plays, it is going to always be a tough game. In the Caribbean, everybody always wants to beat a Jamaica and a Trinidad and Tobago because everybody regards us as the big guns, so all we have to do is mentally and physically prepare to play against these teams."

The head coach is aware that Jamaica is viewed as one of the best teams in the Caribbean but he is cognisant of the fact that what really matters is our performance on the field.

The Reggae Boyz will tackle Costa Rica in an international friendly next Wednesday in Florida, and the team on show will be the one to be used in the defence of the DCC.

"It is the last game going into the DCC and we want to invite all the players that we have registered for the DCC. We are still looking at a couple of the under-20 players," Whitmore informed. "What my staff finds is that every time the national team is called some players expect to see their names. They are not showing that they want to be there, so we have to do an assessment and shake up the players. We have to bring in a couple young prospects to let them know that they are not safe."