PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Rome was not built in a day.

That’s the message of Jamaica’s senior football team head coach, German Winfried Schafer, as he prepares his team for tomorrow’s 8:00 pm kick-off for the second leg of a two-way friendly series of matches against Caribbean neighbours Trinidad and Tobago at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

“First of all team building is not a one-day or a two-day thing, team building is a process that could take some time, maybe one year,” Schafer told the Jamaica Observer yesterday, prior to the team’s scheduled training session at the match venue.

In Friday’s game at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, Ataulla Guerra gave the visitors a fifth-minute lead which held up in the end.

Both team arrived here on Saturday night and are now resident at the Capital Plaza Hotel in Port of Spain.

The 18-man Reggae Boyz squad was taken through a light jog and stretching exercise yesterday morning at the Hasely Crawford Complex, under the watchful eyes of physical trainer Andre Waugh and Schafer.

But now the coach wants the development process to kick in earnestly.

“Now our new goal is to build a new team for the 2018 World Cup, but before we start the qualifications for that World Cup, there will be the Caribbean Cup, the Gold Cup and possibly the Confederation Cup from South America.

“To do that we have to watch our local players, and this is not against the players from England, but the local players must be the heart of the team. But we must understand that we cannot play without the best players from outside of Jamaica,” Schafer stressed.

He cited the present Trinidad and Tobago team as an example, in which the twin-island republic has a number of European-based players mixed with locally-based players.

Schafer noted that the team needs leaders, three of four players who have the trust of the others, and players who will need support from the technical staff. “They will have to form the spine of the team,” Schafer said.

Still, he lamented the short time to prepare teams, since he has been here, but he takes it in stride.

“This new team we have had only two days training, which is not enough. We played our last four games in the World Cup qualifiers against teams who were in the Gold Cup, where they played together for nearly a month, while our team came together only a few days before each game. This is not possible, but for me it is not important.

“What is important now is development. We had a meeting with the players this morning and we discussed the game, the mistakes and things that were not good. Mistakes are different from things that are crazy. I want them to make fewer mistakes the more games we play,” he said.

In further explaining his point, the coach said if it were just to get a win, then he could put enough players behind the ball and probably hope for a goal from a set piece, but that was not the intention.

The intention is to try to play good, constructive football, the way it is to be played. He’s also willing to give the players the freedom to express themselves, and hopefully minimize on past mistakes.

“Probably you will see different players the next time we play, because though I’m prepared to give players the chance to prove themselves, if they don’t show that they are capable of learning from their mistakes, then they will not be in the list going forward.”

Squad: Richard McCullam, Gariece McPherson, Je-Vaughn Watson, Dicoy Williams, Montrose Phinn, Alvas Powell, Darren Mattocks, Omar Daley, Deshorn Brown, Jermaine Anderson, Kemar Lawrence, Michael Seaton, Jason Johnson, Jermaine Woozencraft, Andrew Vanzie, Adrian Reid, Brian Brown, Upston Edwards.