ANTOFAGASTA, Chile — Jamaica’s video analyst Carlos Garcia has been charged by Head Coach Winfried Schaefer to scout the three teams which will oppose Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz in the Copa America Chile 2015 tournament.

Here he breaks down with the Jamaica Observer, his thoughts on the defending champions Uruguay, their style of play, and the problems they pose to Jamaica.

“It’s a team that plays 4-4-2 and mainly counter-attack, even though they have good enough players where they can have possession, but they are much more comfortable when they attack spaces. It is a team that is very, very aggressive. They are good in pressuring the ball and we know they have good players because, apart from the analysis, we know that a lot of the players are playing in Europe. So it’s a team that is very, very strong,” he said.

“I think they are going to play Fernando Muslera in goal, at right-back Maximiliano Pereira from Benfica, left back Alvaro Pereira who plays at Estudiantes in Argentina, and the two centre backs from Atletico de Madrid, Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez. Then they play Egidio Arevalo, the holding midfielder, with Nicolas Lodeiro, who plays in Boca Juniors and plays a little more offensive. They play Carlos Sanchez on the right, probably Jonathan Rodriquez of Benfica on the left, and Edinson Cavani and Diego Forlan as forwards,” he predicted.

Knowing the strengths of the rivals is important, but knowing how to negate those threats is equally important, as explained by Garcia, the Spaniard who had a coaching stint with Montego Bay United in the Red Stripe Premier League.

“One of the things that we (Jamaica) need to do is to avoid giving them space to run and be careful of losing the ball in the middle of the field. So when the team is starting to spread (attack), if we lose the ball they are going to be dangerous there, so I think that is something we have to be very careful with, and try to make them be uncomfortable by putting a high pace on the match, because if we put a high pace and intensity they are going to suffer, and because they are not used to a team trying to counter-attack them, and their defenders are not specially fast, so we can do some damage from that,” he observed.

— Ian Burnett