Downswell wants investment in U17s

Ryon Jones, Gleaner Writer

JAMAICA'S under-17 football team returned to the island yesterday after a creditable showing at the World Cup, despite not making it past the first round.

The youngsters achieved two major milestones, as they were the first Jamaica team to score at the under-17 FIFA Youth Championship; and they were also the first to gain a point at that level.

This was the second Jamaica team that has made it to the under 17 World Cup, as in 1999 some of the top young players in the country formed part of Jamaica's first team to qualify for the tournament, which was held in New Zealand. However, only a minute number of the players who formed a part of that squad 12 years ago can be found among the current senior team setup.

Solid foundation

Head coach Wendell Downswell is hoping that the same thing will not happen with this current crop of players.

"A solid foundation has been laid and they were quite competitive throughout, it is just for us to build on this," Downswell said, shortly after touching down at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday.

"We can't, after this World Cup, just forget about them and it is when qualifiers come around again we go and seek for them again."

He added: "We have to invest in these youngsters, we have started the process and it is just for us to continue. What we would like to see is that a larger volume of these players, having got this international exposure at the World Cup, make the transition."

Downswell has his own ideas as to how the continuous development of these players can be achieved.

"As a team you have to enter them in the local competitions, probably the under-20 and under-21 competitions and then between that you have some international games for them," Downswell proposed.

"Some may go overseas, but we have to maintain contact with them and the possibility of getting them some scholarships locally needs to be vigorously explored at the likes of G.C. Foster (College), University of Technology (UTech) and University of the West Indies (UWI)," he added.

Disappointed

The young Reggae Boyz finished at the bottom of the four-team group with one point, having lost 1-0 and 2-1 to Japan and Argentina, respectively. Their lone point came in their 1-1 draw with France, in their final game of the tournament.

Downswell, despite being pleased with the team's overall performance, was, however, disappointed with them not advancing past the first round.

"We are pleased with the performance of the team itself as the youngsters demonstrated that they are quite competent throughout the tournament," Downswell said.

"It was a bit unfortunate and I am somewhat disappointed that we didn't advance to the next round."

He added: "Argentina, which had a worse goal average than us, advanced and they did that by virtue of beating us 2-1 and that is a game that we could have won."

Downswell, who still regrets the fact that the team did not get the opportunity to train in Spain prior to the tournament, believes the major disparity between Jamaica and the other teams on show was goalscoring.

"I think defensively our organisation was good, but we did not score the opportunities that we created," Downswell expressed. "This is something we have to look at and not only our strikers, but in general our goalscoring machinery."