San Jose , Costa Rica — The dream of qualifying for the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup has already been realised by Head Coach Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore, but the confidence to select a quality, balanced squad could be a nightmare about to unfold.

Whitmore’s Reggae Boyz lost their two games in Central America inside the last week – first going down 0-2 to El Salvador in the final round of the Concacaf Nations League qualifying last Saturday, which eliminated them from League A, but guaranteed them a place in this summer’s Gold Cup, and then suffering a 0-1 loss to Costa Rica in an international friendly on Tuesday night.

It was a lack lustre performance from the Boyz in San Salvador, and while Whitmore saw an improved showing on Tuesday, he was still left scratching his head as he sees glaring deficiencies in the spine of his team.

“This Gold Cup is not going to be easy, so we will just have to brace ourselves for that,” he said.

“The challenge for me is to find the right composition for the squad and there are grey areas of concern in central midfield, and centre half and that’s the problem for me and I’m trying my best to see how to fix that going into the Gold Cup.”

He added: “Basically, we are talking about long term and we don’t want to just stop at the Gold Cup. We have to get our local players in camp where we can drill them and see who we can get out of them to add to this unit going forward, so we always have our job cut out and we know it is difficult, but I don’t want to say yeah, we are going overseas [to find talent] because we have players in our local premier league and it is just for us to give them a chance to get the taste of international football.”

Though the options might be limited, the technical boss identified Portmore United’s Andre “LA” Lewis and Cavalier FC’s Leonard Rankine as players he has been eyeing as possible inclusions to the Reggae Boyz unit.

“We have LA Lewis, Rankine, just to name a few. LA Lewis is no stranger to international football, he was just in the US as well, and we see what Rankine has been doing in the premier league and has played for the country for two games, so it is just for us to get these players in and we work and make the best use of it.”

Whitmore was also of the view that sometimes problems the technical staff faces can be solved off the field.

“For us as the technical staff we can only tell the federation what we want and for them to provide because at the end of the day and at times we only look on the field, but most of the times what we need to do is solve problems off the field and once we can solve the problems then on the field will take care of itself,” he suggested.

Meanwhile, Whitmore thought the much-changed-up team on Tuesday performed more creditably than the team that played against El Salvador on Saturday.

“I think it was a much improved performance and I think what let us down tonight (Tuesday) was not getting a goal and that is something we need to work on going forward in terms of the end product, the finishing.

“For most of the game we were organised, and at times we had the Costa Ricans on the back foot, especially in the last quarter of the game, so it was a much more spirited performance than the one against El Salvador.”

Still, he is firmly of the view that the group needs time together, and he was satisfied with his twin strikers Dever Orgill and Brian Brown.

“It was the first time we have a Brian Brown and a Dever Orgill playing together, so the understanding wouldn’t be there, but I think both of them have something to offer – we saw it in the game – but it is just for us to get together and work.”