Whitmore Says Team Not Ready Yet

As his brood of local-based Reggae Boyz wraps up the home phase of preparation for their friendly international against the USA in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Februray 3, coach Theodore Tappa Whitmore has expressed mixed emotions.

The former Jamaica star, who was recently restored as senior team coach for a second stint, admitted that the overall preparation going into the USA match lags behind projected targets, but he remains upbeat by the positive signs.

I am somewhat pleased with the commitment of the players in training, but we are way behind in terms of preparation for these games, and as you would know, the US were long in camp preparing while we have been trying to get our guys up to speed, Whitmore said yesterday.

The team, which departs the island on Wednesday for the assignment, will have as its core local-based players to be garnished by a number of USA-based professionals.
The final squad of 20 should be announced next week.

The training process, which has been ongoing in earnest on local soil over the past couple of weeks, has been hampered somewhat by the unavailabilty of the the US-based players, who have recently rejoined their clubs for preseason camps.

We will have a squad of local-based players and our MLS players, and as you know, the MLS players have just gone back into preseason and you know that will make things very difficult. We would want them by the latest the 31st of January.

But the good thing is that we are getting there and I am pleased based on what I have seen of the local players, Whitmore told the Jamaica Observer at a training session at Stadium east yesterday.
Following next Friday's game against tyhe 28th-ranked USA at the Finley Stadium in Chattanooga, the 77th-ranked Boyz have another assignment against 75th-rated Honduras in Texas on February 16.

These games form part of broader preparations for the Caribbean Cup finals in Martinique in June and the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the USA the following month.

Whitmore desires more top-shelf opposition as he whips his charges into shape for the upcoming tournaments.

We want to give our local-based players as many international games because we have the CFU tournament coming up in June and we have the Gold Cup right after that, so we want to give them a good run going into those tournaments, he said.

The experience (playing against top-quality opponents) is good and we want to see commitment and we want to see how they handle themselves against the big teams,” Whitmore noted.
The France 1998 World Cup hero, who will be remembered for his sublime double against Japan in a 2-1 win for Jamaica, anticipates that expectations will be high among fans as the Boyz have their Caribbean title to defend, plus their historic Gold Cup exploits.

But Whitmore made it clear that the players ought not to face this pressure.
What we don't want is to put ourselves under added pressure, and as I have said before, if we can get quality practice games going into these tournaments, then we should be good when these tournaments come around Whitmore ended.
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