Well, ah jes reach back today after witnessing meh first match at de "illustrious" Office. First of all, I would like to give de yardies some props for what I considered a good all-round event, except for de actual football
. Vendors were setting up their stations and men was scalping tickets from since about 3 PM. Soon thereafter, all manner of beast was being grilled, creating huge billows of smoke. De ticket prices were $15 USD (bleachers), and $35 USD and $42 USD for Grandstand. I probably went inside about 6 PM. De DJ man was constantly hyping de crowd, but ah find he was boring especially with this whole routine where he would refer to us as de curry and roti people and de Jamaicans as de pepper people. "We will put some peppa in dat curry, RIGHTTTT?, Say PEEEPPPPPPAAAAA! Flash unnuh lighta!" Steups, I doh know where he get de idea dat curry and roti is we national dish, maybe from Big Mag's anecdote about Theobald in Hott Shoppe. One jokey ting dat happen was dat de DJ call up some yute man, ask him where he from, to which he replied "Kingston". De DJ holding out a $1000J bill, and tell him to say PEPPA. De yute man bawl out CURRY and raff de money. He sound like ah Trini. At half-time dey cut de floodlights and used roving spotlights to showcase de entertainment, which consisted of Beenie Man and Junior Reid. It was well done. The effect was more like a concert arena. I was getting chat from dem yardies from de time I land in Kingston, but it was cool, no malice, nutten. Man at de gate tearing meh ticket and saying "Yes, my yute, now yuh could go inside and collect 4".
Imagine, Jamaica eh even play ah qualifier yet, and dem already have dey sponsors lined up running ads talking about SA 2010. What we doing?
I eh go bother to go into details and rehash a lot of what was said, but here is my brief overview of de actual football match:
General:The Jamaicans were hungrier and more aggressive than us. There was nothing particularly enterprising about their play, but I give them credit for quickly finding our weak links and continually exploiting them. I see many people talking about Akeem Adams, but we had the same problem in the right back position (Kern Cupid I think). As a matter of fact, I found the interplay between the wing backs and wide midfielders to be deficient, especially on the right side. You could see our unit's inexperience in several areas of the game. They were too timid, they let themselves get riled easily, and they made a bunch of rash tackles. On the subject of rash tackles, I noticed that Keon Daniel displayed a tendency to tackle clumsily. This is the first time I have him seen him play so I don't know if that's a normal part of his game or not. There were times when a free kick would be given against us and men would be arguing with the referee, while de Jamaicans looking to take quick one, only to be thwarted by Whitely. Dem fellas need to learn about dem kinda tings. I saw mention made of the passing game that we were playing, but I did not see it. To me the percentage of our completed passes wasn't that great. There was a point in time when it seemed like all we would do is win the ball and give it straight back. Overall, our decision making appeared to be slow, even when there wasn't any pressure being applied.
Ah know allyuh must be saying "buh Tallman yuh doh eat nice, yuh eh say nutten positive yet". I just separating de result from de actual ball dat was played and putting it in perspective. One of the hallmarks of successful teams is the ability to grind out results even when their play is below par. The result was great in that respect, and it provides motivation to the youths. It also save meh from getting all kinda talk after de game
. I just hope they take it in stride and not let it get to their heads. One thing I have noticed post-St. Clair, is that time and time again we have showed the ability to persevere till the end which has resulted in come-from-behind wins and draws. If anything, dem yutes need to be given a healthy round of applause for showing that trait. The group should realize that they have a long way to go, but this kind of exposure has long been needed in our football. You can't teach experience, you have to experience it. Give de youths ah chance! (in de right setting). Take dem to Central America and show dem what it's like.
MVPDarryl Roberts: Dat fella work like ah dog and fight for everyting. Was involved in our two firsts goal (ah including de one dey teef we
). I eh tink Randi Patterson figured out to position himself to deal with the balls won by Darryl. I spoke to Darryl after the match and he said he was extremely tired and had some difficulty adjusting to the humidity in such a short space of time. At first, ah thought we bring back Birchall yes, fuss he was looking almost white. Ah say "wait nah, but yuh looking redder dan usual?". He say "yeh, is de snow".
Honourable mentions:Jan-Michael Williams - I can't remember him putting a foot wrong in the match, but I didn't have de benefit of instant replay, so I could be wrong.
Aurtis Whitley - I thought he handled the role of holding midfielder well. You could see that it's not something natural for him, and I myself prefer him as an attacking midfielder where he have more license to do he ting. Kept things calm and collected for the most part, and of course he run everybody out de stadium wit de left-footer.
I met up with Fuentes, and he invited me to the post-match press conference, but I ended up missing it because ah was waiting on ah pardna. Ah couldna leave him out, because he wouldna know where ah was and he didn't have ah phone. Shaka was at the game, as well as Courtney Walsh and Seaga. Knowing dat it have ah setta Trinis in JA, ah find de support could have been much better, but den again, what else is new?
And before allyuh ask for pictures, lemme tell yuh right now I eh take any, because I was only operating at about 30-40% healthwise. Some kinda flu hit me for ah six, and I was down for de count Sunday night, whole day Monday and Tuesday. I had tuh rell summon de will power to make it to JA, and I eh fully recover as yet.
