Mariappa solid as a rock
THE partnership with his long time friend and former Watford clubmate Nyron Nosworthy will not be easily replicated.
Nonetheless, Adrian Joseph Mariappa is forced to forge another solid relationship with Jermaine Taylor at the heart of Jamaica’s defence if the Reggae Boyz are to mount a serious bid for one of the places up for grabs in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Series.
Mariappa, the 26-year-old Reading FC central defender, was solid against Costa Rica on Tuesday night, and though he was a part of a unit which conceded two goals, the first as a result of sloppy play from a set-piece, he was still the Jamaica Observer’s star player of a game in which not many players excelled.
His miscued clearance for a corner after only six minutes boosted the heart rate in the Jamaican camp. That little blip apart, though he marshalled the back line fairly well, he was elevated to the star player status by virtue of his tidy use of the ball from deep.
His wasn’t the performance which resulted in the ball being booted up field aimlessly. He was deliberate and methodical in his passes from the back, most times to one of his wide midfielders or attackers who ventured inside.
Born in Harrow, London, Mariappa progressed through Watford’s youth academy, and started playing for the first team in the 2005-06 season.
Standing at 1.78m and tipping the scale at 80.7kg, Mariappa, who is of a Jamaican mother and a Fijian father, was in late 2010 named by the Fiji Football Association in their 50-member training squad to prepare for the 2011 Pacific Games — an offer the player refused.
“From the three countries, Fiji is not a big nation in football. Jamaica has a great heritage in football and has been to the World Cup before, and some great names have played for Jamaica, so it is definitely a more high-profile country,” explained Mariappa
shortly after he joined the Reggae Boyz.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to come and play international football with the possibility to make the World Cup in Brazil in two years. That’s the only thing that matters to me and it is a great honour for me to be here and be involved,” Mariappa noted then.
