After being eliminated from the Gold Cup, Jamaica has called back their big-guns and are going all-out for the victory. I must find somewhere to watch this match:
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Better Boyz!
Overseas-based players strengthen squad for Canada game
BY ANDREW HANCEL Observer staff reporter
Following their shock first-round exit from the Digicel Caribbean Cup, Jamaica's interim head coach Carl Brown is confident his players will turn things around in a return-leg friendly against Canada at the National Stadium on Sunday.
Brown was speaking yesterday at the team's first training session at Boys' Town Sport Complex after the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) had earlier named a 25-man squad for the contest.
Overseas-based players Claude Davis, Omar Daley and Khari Stephenson were at Collie Smith Drive yesterday, where an upbeat Brown said it was just a matter of fine-tuning and identifying the starting 11 for Sunday's game.
'We expect them (Canada) to be stronger than the last time when we last played them, but. we should also have a stronger squad, and particularly. our attack. will be much stronger than the last couple of games. so I expect a good result from this game,' Brown said.
Jamaica's squad has been significantly strengthened with the inclusion of 11 foreign-based players, after the mostly local-based squad finished behind Haiti and St Vincent and the Grenadines in Group D of the regional competition.
With the inclusion of experienced strikers Ricardo Fuller, Luton Shelton and Teafore Bennett, plus midfielder Jermaine Hue coming in, Brown will definitely have a better and more balanced squad.
Davis and Damion Stewart are expected to keep things tight in defence.
All the overseas players are heavily involved in their respective leagues and with this in mind, it should not be a difficult task preparing the Reggae Boyz, who will be hoping to exact revenge on the North Americans, having lost 1-0 in Montreal on September 4.
'No I don't believe that it would be difficult. As I said, most of the players we know here, it's really not new players. it's just about fitting them, look what we have and how quickly they settle down, and hopefully by Thursday we'll know exactly the team we want to play on Sunday,' said Brown.
According to Brown, he is not feeling any pressure, but the players will certainly want to lift the moral of the country's football with a solid victory against the Canadians.
Meanwhile, Brown told the Observer that regular captain and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, along with Jermaine Johnson, would be unavailable.
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