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Boyz in battle

Tackle Canada in Gold Cup opener

IAN BURNETT @ THE CONCACAF GOLD CUP in USA

Friday, July 03, 2009

Los Angeles, USA - The 2009 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament kicks off today with a Group A double header here at the Home Depot Center.

In the curtain-raiser at 5:00 pm (7:00 pm Jamaica time), Digicel Caribbean champions Jamaica open against North American rivals Canada, while in the feature match two hours later, Central American neighbours Costa Rica and El Salvador battle.

Gardner (right)... I'm not a hundred per cent

The Reggae Boyz, who were boosted by an improved Coca-Cola/FIFA World Ranking (65th) in midweek, will try to better their 1993 third-placed finish, having rostered a number of players with overseas experience.

However, like other teams with many overseas players, Jamaica will enter the game with less than ideal preparation time together. Nineteen of the 20 registered players had just one training session together yesterday at the game venue for the obligatory 45 minutes.

Nonetheless, head coach Theodore Whitmore is down-playing that fact and chose to be positive about the plan going forward.

"There's nothing we can do on it now," he said, referring to the type of preparation with his full squad.

"We just have to focus our mind, be ready physically, mentally and tactically going into the game...," he told reporters at the end of yesterday's training session at the Home Depot Center.

And the former Reggae Boyz hero and star player who has gone nine games unbeaten as head/interim coach, says he is confident and even guaranteed a good performance.

"I'm pretty much confident. We have the goods, it's just for us to deliver now," he insisted, before adding: "I'm pretty much happy with our preparation coming into the Gold Cup. We're guaranteed a good performance. and then we'll take it from there."

Coincidentally, both teams were grouped in the semi-final phase of the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying phase, with the game ending 1-1 in Toronto last August before Jamaica blanked an under-strength Canadian team 3-0 at the "Office" on November 19.

At the time, Jamaica needed to win by seven clear goals to advance to the final phase of qualifying and the Maple Leaf boys were already out of contention.

Now Whitmore says the players will have to put that disappointment and that beating of Canada behind them and focus on the job at hand.

"We've to put that behind us. It's a different team. Both the Canada team and the El Salvador teams are different, so we've to take a different approach to this game. You have to take it one game at a time, we've Canada tomorrow (today) and we just have to take it from there."

He added: "It's the opening game, we want to come out with three points at the end of the game. It doesn't matter. We want to do well in this competition and we have to start by winning..."

Jamaica have had a number of warm-up friendly international matches over the past few months, but on most occasions were not at full strength.

They drew 0-0 with a strong Nigeria unit in London in February; 2-2 against Haiti in Florida, 0-0 with El Salvador in Washington DC, and had a 3-2 win over Panama at home.

They followed up with a one-week pre-Gold Cup training camp in the Cayman Islands where they led a Cayman All Star team 5-0 after 70 minutes before the game was halted due to a lightning storm.

Just last Sunday they beat the Cayman national team 4-1 to wrap up their preparation phase.

Whitmore conceded that he has a group of quality players at his disposal, but it's now up to them to deliver the goods.

"We had a good crop of players going into the World Cup qualifiers and coming into this tournament, but at the end of the day it's what we do out on the pitch that determines the result," he said.

At his only session with all his players - except Ian Goodison, who is still without his passport, which is in the possession of the UK Home Office as the player seeks to renew his UK work permit - Whitmore employed what looked like his starting team, but he said he was still not sure of the final starting unit.

"I'm trying to get there. I've a couple of things that Bradley (assistant coach Stewart) and I will go through later, then we'll try to finalise the team," he said.
One of his considerations must surround the employment of captain Ricardo 'Bibi' Gardner, who has not played a match in a few months after suffering an injury while representing English Premiership club Bolton Wanderers.

Gardner, who missed the camp in the Cayman Islands, gave an update of his physical condition.

"Well I haven't played a game in like a couple of months now, so in terms of match fitness I am not a hundred per cent, more like about 60 per cent," he said. However, he was quick to point out that the mood in the camp was good nd that the Boyz needed to "play a disciplined game, be patient and then take the game to them (Canada)".

Another experienced player, Tyrone Marshall, who formerly played for the LA Galaxy, said with everything that has happened, the Boyz should make their cumulative experience count for something today.

"Well, obviously the experience will have to be an advantage... seeing that we haven't practised together for a long time, so I think that professionalism has to take over... knowing where we are and commanding our positions, and if we do that then I think we should be fine," Marshall said.

Frontline goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, the first choice custodian for the LA Galaxy, whose home field is the Home Depot Center, hopes to make the 'home advantage' count.
"Hopefully I can be a stabilising force at the back," he offered. "We all have experience, but basically I'm like at home, so hopefully I'll be able to make them feel at home too.

"We have played Canada on a number of occasions; we know what Canada is about... because we beat them at home, but this is a new game. We know what we did to beat them... and that was hard work, so we definitely need to go out there and work hard."

After today's set of games, the four teams will head to Columbus, Ohio, for the second round of games next Tuesday with Jamaica facing Costa Rica at 7:00 pm (6:00 pm Jamaica time), followed by El Salvador against Canada two hours later.

The preliminary phase ends next Friday at the Florida International University Stadium with Costa Rica taking on Canada in the first game and Jamaica vs El Salvador in the second at 8:00 pm (Jamaica time).

The top two team from each of the three groups of four teams go through to the quarter-finals, along with the two best third-placed team.

Ranked 92nd by FIFA, Canada will enter the game under Trinidad & Tobago-born coach Stephen Hart on the back of a 3-0 drubbing of Guatemala Tuesday at Oxnard, California, to wrap up a six-day training camp.

Prior to that on May 30, they edged Cyprus 1-0 on a Simeon Jackson debut goal. The 22-year-old Jackson is Jamaican-born - one of a few new faces on their roster.

Notable absentees are star midfielder Dwayne De Rosario, striker Ron Friend, defender Jim Brennan, and goalkeepers Lars Hirschfeld and Pat Onstad.

The 2000 Gold Cup champions reached the semi-finals of the last tournament in 2007 due in large parts to the effort of star midfielder Julian de Guzman, the tournament's MVP who plies his trade in Spain's La Liga with Deportivo La Coruna.

"I would expect him to take up a leadership sort of role," Hart said about de Guzman recently. "He's not the most vocal person on the field, but just by the way he carries himself in practice and games, I expect him to add to leadership along with some of the more veteran players."

Among the 20 players named, 11 are returnees from the 2007 Gold Cup, while seven could make their tournament debut.

Ali Gerba scored two goals on Tuesday, and Patrice Bernier added one more for Canada, but despite playing without the absent veterans Hart was pleased with the line-up that includes nine players making their Gold Cup debut.

Jamaica's probable starting team: Donovan Ricketts, Tyrone Marshall, Claude Davis, Damion Stewart, Jason Morrison, Rodolph Austin, Demar Phillips, Ricardo Gardner, Jermaine Johnson, Ricardo Fuller and Luton Shelton.

The 19-man squad is completed by Dwayne Miller, Rafe Wolfe, Oneil Thompson, Omar Cummings, Eric Vernon, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Nicholas Addlery and Dane Richards.

Canada (from) - Greg Sutton, Adrian Cann, Mike Klukowski, Andre Hainault, Kevin McKenna, Julian de Guzman, Paul Stalteri, Marcel de Jong, Ali Gerba, Will Johnson, Richard Hastings, Issey Nakjima-Farran, Atiba Hutchinson, Dejan Jakovic, Josh Simpson, Simeon Jackson, Jaime Peters, Joshua Wagenaar, Kevin Harmse, Patrice Bernier, Chris Pozniak, Kenny Stamatopoulos, Charles Gbeke.

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