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JAMAICA football team coach Theodore Whitmore says his team will be approaching the August 11 friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago very seriously and are likely to include five overseas-based professionals at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.
Whitmore, one of the heroes of Jamaica’s 1998 World Cup squad, made an appearance in a practice match between the national team and Manchester High School at the UWI Bowl on Wednesday as the Reggae Boyz warmed-up for the friendlies against TT and Costa Rica.Whitmore insisted that the standard of his team was not an issue as most of the players used in the game were young players he was still looking at. He is keen to get a good result over TT after the Soca Warriors bypassed his team as the Caribbean’s number one on the latest FIFA world rankings.
“There are three young players that you saw today that we’ll be taking to Trinidad, so this was like a trial for the rest of players.
“It was just a little practice, scrimmage-like game... but if you notice, most of the seniors players that we’ll be taking with us to Trinidad... were sitting down, so it was just for the younger players to really get a taste of things,” he explained.
“The team has already played matches against St Thomas and St James Allstars and will continue their preparations against Trelawny this Sunday and Portland Allstars the following Saturday.
Whitmore says he is very pleased with how preparations are coming on presently and will be trimming his squad very soon but was yet to name his five overseas based pros for the match.
“We will be taking 18 players to Trinidad and that will include about five overseas-based players,” he said.
Meantime, there was some controversy stirred up in another training match between the Jamaica team and a Claro/St James XI at Jarrett Park this week.
The match was aborted following a fight between former national captain Warren Barrett who is currently the national team goalkeeper coach and referee Donat McKenley.
At the end of the fight, Barrett was left nursing a bloody nose while blood was seen dripping from the lips of referee McKenley, who also had a dislocated finger.
Russell Latapy will continue preparations for the match with two training sessions on Monday and Tuesday at the Marvin Lee Stadium ahead of the clash with Jamaica and the 2010 Digicel Caribbean Cup. That evening of football is likely to be a double-header with the TT Women’s Under-17 team in the earlier fixture.
