Hall focuses on young, emerging players in Boyz squad
Paul Hall, the Jamaica senior men’s football interim head coach, says young, local-bred players have the chance to hold down a place in the squad once they show the appropriate attitude and desire.
Hall has previously indicated he is already into the rebuilding process, with much of his attention on the second season of the Concacaf Nations League, which is to start this summer, and the Concacaf Gold Cup, scheduled for next year.
With a number of the more senior Reggae Boyz absent for the team’s last three final Concacaf World Cup qualifiers for varying reasons, Hall has called on a number of youngsters to fill the void.
The much-thought-of midfielders Lamar Walker and Tyreek Magee have played bit-part roles throughout Jamaica’s failed qualifying campaign.
Magee did not make the squad for qualifiers against El Salvador and Canada last Thursday and Sunday, respectively, and was also not included for last night’s clash with Honduras.
But Peter Vassell — another midfield player who has been in and out of the Reggae Boyz set-up — and Walker were both second-half substitutes in the 0-4 loss to Canada in Toronto.
Hall said all three players remain part of his plans.
“Lamar is a good player. We like Lamar and we like Magee, and Peter Vassell,” Hall, who took over from Theodore Whitmore late last year, said.
“What we’ve got to do with [these] young players is to get them hungry, so they can keep their place. They can’t just have the divine right because they’ve good technical skills. They have to come in hungry,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
As Jamaica struggled, at times to keep the ball during the first half in cold and windy conditions at BMO Field against the World Cup-bound Canadians, Hall said he was particularly pleased with Walker’s contribution when he entered the contest.
Though the Boyz failed to get on the score sheet were handily beaten in the end, Walker and midfield ace Ravel Morrison were central to Jamaica being able to wrest some of the ball possession, which brought respite against the marauding Canada team.
“Lamar came on and I just said to him ‘you need to inject some life into us’, keep us moving the ball, and he did exactly that. He is a good player,” the Reggae Boyz coach reiterated.
— Sanjay Myers