Passport delay blows whistle on Reggae Boyz friendly
SEAN A WILLIAMS, Observer staff reporter
Friday, August 26, 2005
A proposed friendly international between the Reggae Boyz and World Cup aspirants Guatemala tomorrow has been called off.
The game, which was scheduled for a 7:00 pm kick-off at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay, was cancelled due to a delay in the Guatemalans receiving their passports from the British Embassy back home in time to travel to Jamaica for the game.
According to Rafael Rinoco, a spokesman for the interim Guatemala Football Association, the passports were with the British Embassy in Guatemala City being processed for visas for the team to travel to the Caribbean for their CONCACAF World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago on August 3.
"... We were told by the embassy that the passports won't be ready until Friday (today) afternoon and that would be too late to make the trip to Jamaica for the game," Rinoco told the Observer by telephone from Guatemala yesterday.
The passports, it was reported, were originally scheduled to be returned to the team on Wednesday.
"We are very sorry that we won't be able to honour the fixture in Montego Bay, but we are still willing to play Jamaica at another time in the near future," he added.
He said the forced cancellation of the match has put a dent in the team's preparation for its encounter with Trinidad. "We were really looking forward to playing Jamaica as it will be a tough game against Trinidad and the Jamaica match would provide us with the necessary preparation," Pinoco said.
Guatemala, who are third on seven points in the six-team CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, have been defeated twice by Jamaica this year - 1-0 in a friendly in Atlanta, Georgia, and 4-3 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup - viewed a game against Jamaica at this time as the perfect test.
Meanwhile, Jamaica's head coach Wendell Downswell said he was disappointed that the game will not be played at this time.
"We are disappointed that the game is off as we were really looking forward to it although it was at short notice. What it would have provided us with is the opportunity to look at another set of players and those players now I am sure must be disappointed that they will not have the chance at this time to show their talent at the international level," he said.
The squad selected for the match was made up off all home-based players, many of whom are just lying on the fringe of breaking into the first team.