Jamaica (pictured) opens its Group A schedule in the 2015 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship against host Honduras on February 27, 2015, at the Estadio Francisco Morazán in San Pedro Sula. (Photo: Yonel Louis)
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – Jamaica will be hoping to reverse a 12-year trend in Central America, when it meets host Honduras on Friday in the Group A opener for each in the 2015 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship.
The Reggae Boyz defeated Guatemala in Guatemala City, 3-2, on March 7, 2003, for their last win in the region. Since then, they are winless in four straight competition outings, including three in Panama City two years ago.
“The history for us against all of these teams [in Group A] is a mixed bag,” head coach Andrew Edwards told CONCACAF.com. “Certainly, against Honduras, I think we have had mixed results, winning and losing on different occasions.
“The last time we played them in 2011 in Jamaica, we had a victory against them. We have not had any victories on Central American soil since 2003 – except for our 1-0 victory over Costa Rica in our last warm-up game a couple days ago – so we know that Central America has been a very difficult place for us. We expect a really tough challenge.
“However, I think we have a very good crop of boys, technically and tactically, and boys who are very hungry and passionate about achieving for themselves and their country. I think that puts us in good stead.”
In the group stage, Jamaica will also meet Guatemala (March 2), Cuba (March 5), Trinidad & Tobago (March 8) and the United States (March 11).
The group winners will qualify for the final and the FIFA U-17 World Cup later this year, with the second- and third-place finishers contesting a pair of single-game playoffs to determine CONCACAF’s last two representatives in Chile.
Edwards stressed that while qualifying for the showpiece in Chile is Jamaica’s major aim, it was also important for the team to produce quality performances throughout the tournament.
“We have a number of objectives as a team and top of the list has to be the desire to qualify for a third Under-17 World Cup,” he pointed out. “That aside, we have some marginal objectives. We want to bring our ‘A’ game every game we play in this tournament. We want to have performances that we can be proud of regardless of the results [and] we want to win as many games as possible.
“We certainly want to start with a very positive result against Honduras on Friday – that being a win of course. We want to get individual players selected to the CONCACAF All Stars team at the end of the tournament and we would like to cop at least one of the individual awards. At the group stage, our primary objective is to try and top the group.”
Prior to arriving in Honduras, Jamaica spent a week in Costa Rica, where they split two friendlies with the host nation (3-1 loss, 1-0 win).
With the preparation behind them, Edwards believes that Jamaica is ready to demonstrate its capabilities.
“We’ve tried to adapt the idea of one-touch football where we try to go forward as quickly as possible, while retaining possession, so we will be putting on a show a really attractive brand of football,” he finished. “A brand that is representing Jamaica really well and one that we expect to become the standard of the future for us.”
Source link : https://www.concacaf.com/under-17s-men/article/back-in-central-america-jamaica-aims-high-at-cu17/
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Publish date : 2018-02-09 03:00:00
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