SAO PAULO, Brazil — After three weeks of intense training here at the Traffic Football Academy, head coach Wendell Downswell is happy with where the national Under-17 Reggae Boys are at as they prepare for the CONCACAF Under-17 Championship in February.

“We are pretty satisfied with what has transpired… what we did in the first phase was more of a pre-preparation phase mainly concentrating on a lot of strength work and some technical and basic functional work with them,” Downswell explained.

“The results were not of any great significance especially for the first three to four games of this phase,” he noted.

The Jamaicans arrived in Sao Paulo, Brazil on December 15 and to date, played four games, losing three and drawing one.

On December 19 they lost 2-3 to Saltense Under-18; two days later they crashed 0-4 to Uniao Sao Joao Under-18; on December 23 they were defeated 1-5 to Desportivo Brasil Under-18 before rallying from three goals down to draw 3-3 with Paulinia Under-18 on December 28.

The game with Desportivo Brasil Under-16 was postponed because of injuries to both goalkeepers.

After spending three weeks at the Traffic Football Academy, the team is scheduled to depart to Pousada Clube Serra Negra near Rio Claro for another three weeks.

With the extension of the training to six weeks, there will be two accomplished tutors “at the levels at which the players presently are in school”, which should be arriving by tomorrow to help keep the boys focused on their school work.

Jamaica, who will play hosts to the CONCACAF tournament and are slated to open their account on February 15, will see an increase in their tactical work load, Downswell noted.

“Here we train twice per day and for the next phase, we’ll probably train once per day… (we will) reduce the volume and increase the intensity as we work on the tactical aspects and a lot of functional work,” he revealed.

“With this, we will get them in a better game situation as it relates to the tactical aspect. Overall we are really satisfied because we worked on the technical part and now we are going to work on the tactical part,” Downswell added.

The experienced youth coach said while results were not a big factor in the first camp, the second will see a bit more emphasis there.

“The games that we will be playing now, we will focusmore on results because we are getting closer to the competition,” said Downswell.

Jamaica is drawn in Group C alongside Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago with the top two advancing to the quarter-finals.

The four semi-finalists from the CONCACAF tournament will qualify for the FIFA World Cup slated for Mexico in June.