Reggae Boyz gear up for tough Guatemala clash

Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sports

MIAMI, Florida:

THEODORE 'Tappa' Whitmore exercised his options yesterday in the Reggae Boyz's first full practice session since their arrival here, as they prepared for a 'tough Guatemala' challenge tomorrow in their second CONCACAF Gold Cup Group B encounter.

"First, every game we come here to play, we know it is going to be tough, and Guatemala is the same," Whitmore noted, after a 90-minute training session at the Florida International University, where the match will be played tomorrow, beginning at 7 p.m. (6 p.m. Jamaica time).

The Jamaicans, courtesy of their overwhelming 4-0 victory over Grenada in their opening encounter at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles on Monday night, lead the group with three points, two ahead of the Guatemalans, who battled to a goalless finish with Central American neighbours Honduras.

advancing teams

Two teams are certain to advance from the four-team group phase and another win would satisfy the Jamaican head coach's goal, even with one more fixture to complete the preliminaries, against Honduras next Monday in New Jersey.

This situations contrasts starkly to the last Gold Cup, when Jamaica turned up at the Miami venue needing to win to give themselves a half chance to qualify. This time, besides the positioning, Whitmore says the Reggae Boyz are better prepared.

"We have spent a couple of days in Brazil to build the team spirit, so we have more of a team here than in 2009 when we basically had a group," he pointed out.

"They know it is a tough assignment they have on Friday night and the training session went well. We have another (training session) tomorrow to wrap up a couple of things and then we'll take it from there."

daleys effective

Evident in yesterday's session, which followed a morning workout in the gym and pool, was the revolving of the unrelated Daleys - first-match subs Omar and Keammar who made an impact - on the first team.

"We have to give ourselves options and those are two of the options we are looking at going into the game on Friday night," said Whitmore, noting that he was fairly satisfied with the workout.

Additionally, the stadium surface is the unaccustomed artificial (astro turf), but Whitmore had no complaints.

"Football is evolving, so you can't only think about playing on grassed fields," he said. "... We have to condition our minds on playing on any surface and in any situation. That is the sort of behaviour we are trying to build in the national programme."