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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 23 2003 : 12:50:33 PM
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Brown looks for attack against South Africa
FOOTBALL -- Friendly International
SEAN A WILLIAMS, Observer staff reporter
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
BROWN... placing special emphasis on attack
UP until press time yesterday, technical director, Carl Brown, could not confirm the number of Jamaican foreign-based players who will be available for the South Africa friendly next Wednesday in Cape Town in that country.
But what seems certain, is that Brown will be placing special emphasis on attack by the number of strikers he has summoned and is hoping to get all.
'We have a number of players who are strikers who have been playing with the team regularly and we continue to look at new ones,' he said.
'We have been trying to improve our attack force,' Brown continued.
To shore up the Jamaican attack, Brown has summoned a new striker in First Division marksman, Darren Byfield.
'He's big, strong and quick ... he has 13 goals so far this season and we hope this is one of the things that he'll transfer to the team,' Brown told the Observer yesterday.
The other overseas-based forwards invited to the team are Leicester City's Trevor Benjamin, Charlton Athletic's Kevin Lisbie and Rushden and Diamonds, Paul Hall.
These English-based frontmen are expected to be supported by attack-minded Bolton Wanderers' Jermaine Johnson and Paris St Germaine's Keith Kelly.
'We are hoping that we would be able to get all those players and it looks very favourable at this time,' Brown noted.
Other foreigners invited to the squad are Tyrone Marshall (LA Galaxy -- US Major League), Frank Sinclair (Leicester City), Michael Johnson (Birmingham City), and James Lawrence (Walsall).
Brown said by today, the full squad to South Africa should to be announced.
South Africa -- affectionately called 'Bafana Bafana' and ranked 30 in the world by FIFA -- are expected to field a strong team in Cape Town on match day as they aim to cancel their 1-1 tie against the Reggae Boyz in Kingston back on May 9, 1999. The Reggae Boyz are currently ranked 51.
'They have been the leading team in Africa for a long, long time now and they have a number of players playing outside, so we expect them to have a strong team,' Brown said.
But the primary objective of playing such a potentially strong opponent, Brown said, is to prepare his team for the upcoming Gold Cup tournament in July.
'The Gold Cup will be much tougher and (encounter) different level of football, so it will always be good for the players to play tough opponents ...,' he said. 'This game will help us to make our final selection for the Gold Cup.'
Fresh from their stint in the 2002 World Cup in Asia, plus the number of players plying their trade in top leagues across the globe, South Africa should be a hard nut to crack.
'What you would find is a disappointing South Africa in the World Cup so they could be in a rebuilding phase, so I expect them to be far more experienced than when we saw them in Kingston,' Brown outlined.
In terms of style, not much difference is expected, said the former Jamaica international.
'There is not a whole lot of difference in terms of style ... as I have said before some of their players are playing in Europe... in England so we could see a lot of similarity here,' he noted. 'I believe they are a far more improved bunch this time around,' Brown added.
As to exactly how the Jamaicans will hold up from what is anticipated to be an exhausting trip across the Atlantic, will have to be a matter of wait and see.
'It is always going to be a long and tiring trip, but we have to wait until D-Day to see how the players react to it,' Brown said.
The local-based 24-man squad in training for this game are Donovan Ricketts, Shawn Sawyers, Aaron Lawrence, Allien Whittaker, Claude Davis, Omar Daley, Roen Nelson, Wolry Wolfe, Robert Scarlett, Fabian Taylor, Nicholas McCreath, Jermaine Hue, Damion Stewart, Fabian Dawkins, Theodore Whitmore, Denton Vidal, Oneil Dunn, Cornel Chin Sue, Jonathan Williams, Gerald Neil, Vincent Earl, Shane Stephens, Weston Forrest, Damion Williams.
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Karl |
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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
Posted - Apr 29 2003 : 10:23:08 AM
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More woes for Boyz........ a negative pattern is developing
Monday, April 28, 2003, 9:07:08 PM
IP:68.161.112.186
More woes for Boyz
Jamaica face South Africa tomorrow
IAN BURNETT, Observer staff reporter
Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Cape Town, South Africa -- Jamaica's Reggae Boyz football squad has been further reduced with three late withdrawals -- English-based Kevin Lisbie and Trevor Benjamin, along with the Belgium-based Keith Kelly.
Kelly and Lisbie failed to arrive in beautiful South Africa with other members of the group yesterday, due to problems with airline tickets in Belgium in the case of Kelly, and 'flu in Lisbie's case. The latter was on target with a rare headed goal for Charlton Athletic in their 2-1 premiership encounter against Southampton last Saturday.
Leicester City's Trevor Benjamin, who was also on target for his club in their 1-1 result against Norwich on Sunday, picked up an injury in that game and also failed to make the trip.
The withdrawal of the three has reduced the squad to 15. Two of those 15, Tyrone Marshall of LA Galaxy, and Bolton Wanderers' Jermaine Johnson, are yet to arrive. However, both players are expected in Cape Town this morning, along with technical director, Carl Brown, and team doctor, Glenton Smith.
Jamaica had also lost the English-based pair, Frank Sinclair and Jamie Lawrence, on the weekend because of injuries.
The Boyz are in South Africa to engage that country in a friendly international at the 20,000-seater capacity Athlone Stadium in Cape Town tomorrow at 8:30pm (1:30pm local time).
Team assistant coach Peter Cargill is disappointed with the non-appearance of the three players, but he is not overly bothered.
'It has affected us in terms of not having a lot of options ... we have only four, but in terms of the squad, I think we still have a fairly good squad that should be able to represent us well,' he told the Observer following a training session at the game venue last evening.
'The vibe has been wonderful, this evening you could see it ... touches off the ball ... people are motivated and its good to welcome back Michael Johnson, who looks much slimmer, much better than he was in the past and also a big welcome to Darren Byfield, who looks very good and we are expecting a good game from him ... and the old guards, Paul (Hall) and Fitz (Simpson), so we are expecting a good game,' he reiterated.
Hall had an excellent season for Rushden & Diamonds, who gained promotion to the division two league, and was rewarded with a selection to the All-Division Three team by the Football Players' Association (FPA).
Byfield, of Rotherham, Hall, Walsall's Simpson and Michael Johnson, of Birmingham City, arrived in South Africa early yesterday morning from London. However, Jermaine Johnson, who was also scheduled to arrive yesterday, was delayed after his connecting flight to London developed engine problems and had to return to Bolton.
Yesterday's four arrivals increased the squad to 13, after Aaron Lawrence, Donovan Ricketts, Claude Davis, Oneil Dunn, Damion Stewart, Gerald Neil, Cornel Chin-Sue, Omar Daley and Fabian Taylor, had arrived a day earlier.
The South African squad, popularly called, 'Bafana Bafana' is also experiencing problems with the arrival of their overseas-based players. Goalkeeper, Emile Baron, who plays for Lillestrom in Norway, and World Cup veteran, Sibusiso Zuma, of FC Copenhagen in Denmark, missed their flights into South Africa yesterday and are expected in today.
Tomorrow's game will mark the official local launch of South Africa's 2010 World Cup Finals bid. The country just failed by one vote to cop the 2006 World Cup Finals, losing out to Germany, but they are strong favourites for the 2010 edition of the FIFA tournament.
A number of dignitaries from the African confederation will attend the game.
The Boyz will hold their final workout today at 3:00 pm at the Westpoint field, a few blocks away from the team hotel, before attending the official ceremony to launch the South African Football Association (SAFA) 2010 World Cup bid at 7:00 pm. Members of the Republic of South African government, FIFA and CAF representatives, as well as members of the bidding committee, sponsors and even FIFA vice-president and CONCACAF boss, Austin 'Jack' Warner, will be in attendance.
Cargill believes this is an opportunity for players, especially the local-based ones, to show what they are made of. 'It's a privilege to come to Africa to play, we played in Ghana, we played Nigeria, but it is our first time in this beautiful country, but at the end of the day the players know that this game is all in preparation for the Gold Cup, that's what its about. We have nine local-based players here and we have people jostling for position and that is healthy,' he said.
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Brown looks for attack against South Africa
