Jamaica, Japan U22s clash in Kirin Challenge Cup today
Published:Saturday | December 28, 2019 | 12:00 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer -
Jamaica's Under-22 men's football team take on their Japanese counterparts in a friendly international at the Transcosmos Stadium in Nagasaki, Japan, this morning at 5 a.m. for the Kirin Challenge Cup. The Young Reggae Boyz assistant coach Merron Gordon said although it is important to get a positive result, there are other factors of key interest to the team.
"A positive result is always good, especially against first world opponents who spend millions on their programmes, compared to us," he said. "But for us, winning can come in many forms, as it can be that it opens doors for players to get into Asia or for our (national) teams to get camps in this part of the world. So we don't have to win the match to win in other aspects," he said.
"We hope they can showcase themselves. The J-League (Japan's top flight league) is a rising league and players can open doors for themselves and they can get the experience so that they can make that transition into the senior team, so we are upbeat for the game."
But Gordon says that both camps are taking this game very serious, as Japan are putting effort into developing their next generation of players.
"When we do our research, they have played a lot of practise games, they even beat Brazil 3-2 in Brazil.
"But we take this game very seriously and the Japanese are taking it very seriously as well. They have put a lot of preparation into this team, as they believe they have an exceptional group of players and that this is the next generation of Japanese players, so they are doing everything to try and get them up to par."