ANTALYA, Turkey — Donovan Duckie admits that he is impressed with the tactical shrewdness of Reggae Boyz head coach Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore.

The Waterhouse coach, who assisted the Jamaican France World Cup star on the tour of Turkey, said working side-by-side with the “maestro” was an eye-opener.

“What I have realised being on the outside of the programme, I have always looked at the track record of Whitmore, and now being on the inside I am going to tell you something that you won’t believe, but I think he is one of the smartest Jamaican coaches I have ever seen,” said Duckie, one of Jamaica’s well-travelled, top-flight coaches.

“I am talking about his (Whitmore’s) philosophy, his vision for Jamaica’s football, his guidance in training, the drills that we use to prepare, how we work together, the chemistry I saw between us and his direction on the bench today (Tuesday) in terms of how we adjusted ourselves,” he added.

Duckie, who is seen as the Messiah for rescuing Waterhouse FC from the doldrums of the Red Stripe Premier League, made the point that Jamaica’s football would suffer if it should lose a footballing mind like Whitmore’s.

“This is a person we need to trust, believe in and go forward with,” he said.

Reflecting on Jamaica’s 2-2 tie with World Cup-destined South Korea at the Mardan Stadium on a warm Antalya afternoon Tuesday, Duckie thinks the team was spot on with its approach despite everything.

“It was a decent result for us against a team that has been in preparation for very long periods versus us who have had just a few days. But this result, no doubt, will build the confidence, especially that of the local players.

“The game worked to plan, and you saw what we did in training. In the Romanian game we used the 4-4-2, we changed to 5-3-2, then we changed to 5-4-1… I thought for the game (against South Korea) we would have gone back for 4-4-2, but we spoke and he (Whitmore) said, ‘let’s go with this (5-3-2) because I think that based on their characteristics we will match them with this system’,” Duckie told Jamaican journalists working the beat here.

The former Humble Lion coach said much of what was worked out on the training pitch manifested itself in the game.

“The training session before the game you saw that it was specific with a back phase of five because we knew we wanted to close their flanks, we didn’t want to allow them a lot of space inside the box because we knew their number nine player (Kim Shinwook) was their target player, and he scored twice today (Tuesday) and we could have solved that problem with more camps and more training sessions,” he opined.

Duckie, who has had stints with the national programme before, also spoke to the tactical delivery of the team in keeping with the ebb and flow of the game.

“In our tactical phase I thought we did brilliantly, and we got the go-ahead goal early and they (South Korea) had to chase the game.

“We know that Barcelona’s philosophy is big around the world by controlling the game in possession, but we also knew that we could control the game out of possession, and as such, we allowed them to play in certain areas of the pitch as we allowed them to play to the sides. So, for the game today (Tuesday), I thought it was a success based on how we planned,” Duckie ended.

Since arriving in Turkey for the two matches, the first being against Romanian club CS Gaz Metan Medias which ended 1-1, Duckie was observed to be very involved in the training sessions and was active from the bench in both matches.

Also, he could be seen regularly consulting with head coach Whitmore before, during and after training sessions.

Duckie, according to Jamaica Football Federation president Michael Ricketts, was not only fitting in for the unavailable assistant coach Jerome Waite, but was a part of a programme the federation is pursuing to expose some the country’s most promising coaches.

“Duckie is here in the absence of Jerome Waite who is the assistant to Theodore Whitmore…When we had discussions with Waite and realised he was going to be unavailable, we looked around for a coach who would be on a shortlist that the JFF had established.

“With him (Duckie) doing so well, we thought we would have him understudy Whitmore… We have a list of coaches that we want to expose and Duckie is one of them who we thought would benefit, thus he was chosen in collaboration with senior coach Whitmore,” Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer.

— Sean Williams