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Karl
Senior Member
USA
914 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 24 2004 : 1:26:37 PM
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By GORDON WILLIAMS, Contributor
THE COMMON VIEW is that Jamaica's Reggae Boyz were eliminated from football's 2006 World Cup because of missed chances.
If only the Reggae Boyz had scored goals from the numerous opportunities they got against Panama and El Salvador, fans and coaches said, then the 1-1 tie against the United States would not have mattered. Jamaica would have waltzed into the final qualifying round anyway. Easily.
Partially true.
Jamaica was flirting with elimination from the World Cup long before they faced a must win situation in Columbus, Ohio on November 17 because they missed another, far greater opportunity, to score...as a nation.
When Carl Brown decided to relinquish the post of head coach of Jamaica's senior team in July he made a tragic mistake. Not only did he squander the opportunity to become the first Jamaican-born coach to take the local senior team to the World Cup, he also damaged the hopes and dreams of many young Jamaicans by recommending that the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) bring in a foreigner to replace him.
Where will it end? When will Jamaicans finally figure out that foreigners are not the knee-jerk answer to all our problems? When will we know that we can organise, compete and execute efficiently just like anyone else, anywhere else in the world, if only we allow ourselves the opportunity?
Successful record
When Brown stepped down shortly after Jamaica's resounding 3-0 win over Haiti to advance to the semi-final round of CONCACAF qualifiers, I wondered what would make a man with a successful record as coach, who had also served his country as a player, who had suffered disrespect from other foreign coaches, and who always talked about finally getting a chance to prove himself, just give it all up? And without much fight too.
During a trip to Sunrise, Florida with the Under-20 squad shortly after his resignation as head coach of the seniors, Brown tried to explain his decision. He made a passionate case, pointing to forces, some outside the national football setup, including businessmen and politicians, who were determined to withdraw valuable support - cash and kind - from the senior Reggae Boyz if he continued as coach. Those people, he explained, did not think any local coach was capable of leading Jamaica to the World Cup. They did not want Brown. They wanted a foreigner.
Brown said he weighed the options and decided he could not deprive his team of resources needed for the 'Road To Germany' campaign. Off the record, but promising to answer future questions on the record relating to his comments, he called names of a couple of the 'backroom' schemers, the people who were orchestrating his demise in secret meetings. His revelations were stunning and truly sad.
Why would Jamaicans want to downgrade one of their own without giving him the chance to finish the job he started?
The following day, as promised, Brown agreed to discuss the same issues on the record. He repeated his allegations of the previous day, but he did not call the names. He said he did not wish to damage the football programme's future prospects.
I understood, but only partially. Why wouldn't Brown expose, once and for all, the ugly underbelly of Jamaican society, where a few rich, influential backroom wheeler-dealers can determine the fate of a nation simply because of their personal likes and dislikes? After all, the Reggae Boyz did not belong to a few, but Jamaicans everywhere.
Dirty little secrets, backroom dealings, have humbugged Jamaica's society forever; in politics, business, sports, and everything else. Sad. But this time, I thought, an excellent opportunity had shown itself. Brown could publicly expose the ugliness. Finally, he could tell the nation who some of these influences were.
Wheeler-dealers
But he, along with the JFF administration, declined the shot; the chance to stand up and score for the people of Jamaica, most of whom have suffered at the hands of influential wheeler-dealers without even knowing they were being used as pawns in some selfish, power game, some of them the same ones who demanded a foreign coach.
Would Jamaica have qualified for the World Cup without the support of these so-called influences? We will never know, simply because Brown and the JFF were too timid to find out. The shackels will remain tightly in place.
Now many young Jamaicans will still believe they are not good enough, that they will be just marking time until a foreigner comes in to take their place. Brown, the man who rose from Boys Town, certainly did.
In one of rapper Eminem's monster hit songs he urges: 'You gotta lose yourself in the music, the moment. You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow, the opportunity comes once in a lifetime.'
Pied piper
Brown and the JFF succumbed to the backroom wheeler-dealers and missed that one shot to help the nation in a bigger way than any sporting team can. Missed by a wide margin too. It's been nearly a decade since Rene Simoes came to Jamaica and said part of his job was to prepare local coaches to eventually command the same respect as the foreigners. He obviously failed. Meanwhile, the foreigner did not lead Jamaica to the promised land this time. The pied piper Brazilian Sebastiao Lazaroni will move on to another professional coaching job elsewhere. Jamaica's football is in shambles. Bad year, 2004. No Olympic qualification, no senior World Cup. The Under-17s will likely miss the world championships.
But a lot of excuses.
Lazaroni blamed everything for failing to qualify Jamaica for Germany: too little preparation time, lack of practice matches, missed goal scoring chances by the players. Most of these so-called deficiencies are common to nearly all national football teams, plus he knew about them long before he landed in Jamaica to take the job Brown once held.
Jamaica also knew about him too. After all, he had quit the programme a few years ago whining and complaining. But Jamaica brought him back, because he was a foreigner. And without even as much as a public whimper, Brown embraced him, failing to fully understand the impact his decision could have on a nation's psyche, even if he said, on that day in Sunrise, he was concerned about that too.
Senior Reggae Boyz, like Onandi Lowe, publicly supported Brown. Tyrone Marshall said the players liked Brown and wanted to win for him. They wanted him to lead them. But Brown shied away.
Too late for the fight Carl. You only got one shot, and you muffed your chance to score the biggest goal of all for Jamaica.
- Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in Miami.
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Karl |
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Brown's tragic mistake
