PORTO FELIZ, Brazil — Jamaica’s three Under-20 custodians — Kemar Foster, Gregory McCogg and Shaven Paul — have been subjected to severe training drills by Brazilian goalkeeper coach Joao Brigatti.

The 46-year-old former professional goal-tender, whose contract with top Brazilian club Portuguesa as a goalkeeper coach ended 10 days ago, has developed a rigorous training regime after being asked by close friends of the father-and-son team of Walter and Luciano Gama to work with the Under-20 Reggae Boyz squad.

Speaking through team masseuse, Brazilian Pablo Carmargo, the former Brazil Under-20 goalkeeper said he has enjoyed working with the young goalkeepers, but has spotted technical deficiencies.

Brigatti noted, however, that he believes he can get the players up to an acceptable standard in time for the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship set for Guatemala from March 28 to April 10.

“From what I have seen and from my experience, the technical part of their game has to be worked on more… it needs to be polished,” Brigatti said in the language of Brazil, Portuguese.

“I try to emphasise every movement they need make on the field. (The good thing is) that they are very intelligent and want to improve, so they are going to be at a good level when the tournament comes,” said the coach through Carmargo, who has lived in Jamaica and has worked with the nation’s football teams for many years.

The Young Boyz, in their second of a three-week stint in Brazil in preparation for the Guatemala tournament, have little time to get all things right, thus forcing Brigatti to ask the goalkeepers to report to the training field an hour earlier than the rest of the team.

“I realised they will need much improvement in the technical area, so if we come out at the same time as the other players, then I won’t have a lot of time to do much technical work… by the time they (full team) warm up, they want to use the goalkeepers right away and that’s why I need the extra time to work out with them,” Brigatti told the Observer from the Traffic Football Academy, where the Jamaicans are based.

Though the training is tough, the young goalkeepers claimed they are enjoying every minute of it, even as they struggle to communicate at times with their Brazilian coach.

“This was our fourth session with the Brazilian and it has been pretty good although we don’t understand the language,” remarked McCogg.

Foster said “he seems to be a very good goalkeeper coach and he has been helping us a lot”.

Paul, who has missed two of the four sessions so far due to a slight ankle injury, said the training is tough, but there is a lot being learnt.

“So far things have been going good with him, the language is a bit of a challenge, but we try our best to understand what he wants, because we want to make him feel proud about what we are learning from him,” he said.