PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Miguel Coley, head coach of Jamaica’s Under-23 football team, which crashed out of the Rio Summer Olympic Games 2016 following their third-place finish in the Caribbean Football Union Men’s Under-23 Championship here over the weekend, is appealing to local coaches to educate players on the fundamentals of the game.

Coley, who is also the assistant coach to Winfried Schaefer at the senior Reggae Boyz level, was flabbergasted by the poor attitude, concentration levels, fitness, and basic understanding of the game which was displayed by his team in their 1-2 loss to Cuba. This eliminated them from the CONCACAF Final Round in the US in October, and even in their laboured 3-2, extra-time victory over St Vincent & The Grenadines in the meaningless third-place match at the Stade Sylvio Cator on Sunday.

“I want to appeal to all the coaches within our country that we need to start working on the players more tactically in terms of them understanding the game more, because when they come to this level they don’t have it and it is very difficult in a couple days to correct that, not to mention going on the football field and not concentrating and not having that base, it is very difficult,” bemoaned Coley, as he reflected on the failed championship.

“We made some high schoolboy mistakes that at this level are unacceptable, and as a coach, yes, you take the blame, but with some of the goals (conceded) there was not much we could do and the mindset of the players will have to change. We are not short on talent, but the mindset has to change,” he reiterated.

Last Friday, the young Reggae Boyz, with ‘prima donna-like’ behaviour all round the 20-man squad, displayed a distinct lack of awareness and football nous in the manner in which they conceded four goals in the tournament.

Against Cuba, goalkeeper Nico Campbell pulled a ball back from outside his goal frame and across the goal line, then defender Damion Lowe’s weak headed clearance right at the feet of a Cuban, who accepted the gift by relaying a neat pass to a teammate to slam home for the victory.

In Sunday’s game, Kereem Manning at the near post skipped a left-sided corner directed at him which ended up in the goal, and if that wasn’t bad enough, Lowe tried to beat a third player on a dribble out of his defensive area, lost possession of the ball, which fell kindly to his centre defensive partner Andre Morrison, who tried to do a similar trick and was only successful in losing possession of the ball. The end result is that the ball ended in the back of Jamaica’s net for the equaliser.

“We have to continue working with them and working on that, not only at this level, but all the levels in the national programme and all the levels of football within the country,” noted Coley.

“I’m very disappointed, especially being the assistant coach of the national senior team, and after what the senior team had done, I think it would have been a driving force in terms of the attitude, even more than talent because you can’t do anything about talent on the day if you don’t have it already, but in terms of even the attitude, the team spirit, because you want that to transcend to all levels of the football and that is something that we really have to work on.”

Reflecting on Sunday’s game, the coach said he was satisfied with how the team started the first half, passing the ball very well and getting the lead and could have gone further ahead with a number of clear-cut chances which weren’t taken, but then gave up a soft goal.

“At this point I can’t even fathom what happened because at no level at all you expect a player to be on the post and jumping over a ball that ends up in your goal, but as a coach you live and you learn and you have to really understand that there are a lot of surprises within coaching, to be honest, but you just have to continue working really hard, and working at their mental aspect because I think that’s where they are falling short.

“In the second half we started out well passing the ball around, but we were losing the ball in areas in which we could have made goals, but wrong decisions each time and that’s something that continues to plague the team. We are giving turnovers without being pressured and we gave away another soft goal with two defenders trying to dribble out of the box, ending up with a goal from St Vincent & The Grenadines, and we even conceded a penalty and hats off to the goalkeeper, he came up strong for us which was very important because at that point, based on our mindset, I’m not sure if we could have got back a goal.

“So I’m really happy for that. We managed to score a goal in extra time which probably just gave us a little bit of pride, but we have to do better, and I am the coach and whatever happens I have to stand up and say it is my team, but at least the players have to challenge themselves now within their clubs and within their schools to really work hard on their game.”

Coley, the successful coach at Jamaica College in schoolboy football, noted that some of his players have complained that they are not getting enough playing time at their clubs and schools, and now he is seeing the reason why they are not doing so.

“Their concentration levels are really poor, the fitness levels are also poor, those are some of the areas we need to work on. You can’t take five days with a team to do that, and I say no fault of the JFF or anybody at all, it is just that players have to start taking responsibility for themselves and understand that they will one day represent the country, and start developing that pride and that passion that I want them to play with.”