Jamaica Name 10 English-Based Players For Tough Friendlies In Japan
Theodore Whitmore’s latest squad contains a third of his players plying their trade in England, with the Jamaica head coach handed three tricky friendlies ahead of July’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
German-based whizzy winger Leon Bailey (Bayer Leverkusen) and recent recruit Jamal Lowe, the Swansea City striker, are notable absentees from the 30-player squad set to tackle Japan (3 June), Serbia (7 June) and the Japan Olympic team (12 June).
Potential players enduring long, hard seasons with top European teams will no doubt want a bit of a rest if they are going to be part of the Gold Cup squad and then the all-important World Cup qualifiers.
The reason that Serbia are involved in the friendlies in Japan is because their head coach Dragan Stojković is a popular figure in the country. He used to play alongside English goalpoacher Gary Linekar for Nagoya Grampus Eight in the 1990s, and as manager he guided the team to their inaugural J.League trophy in 2010.
In contrast, Whitmore was not liked by Japan’s fans as he scored twice to shock Japan 2-1 at France 1998. That victory is Jamaica’s sole win in the World Cup finals.
Fast forward 23 years and Whitmore’s priority will be upset Japan once more. He will be aiming to knit his latest crop of players together, weeding out any who won’t be part of his long-term plans. He was given an impossible task with his previous squad, who were outplayed by the youthful United States in March, as he didn’t pick them.
As only Lowe made any real impact from the eight British-based players he had for that US exhibition match, it is no surprise to see some of those faces not included in his latest squad.
Andre Blake, the influential skipper and goalkeeper, is back in the fold. He missed last year’s Saudi Arabia trip because of injury and was absent from the 4-1 defeat to the United States because of the now settled contract dispute with the JFF.
Dennis Taylor tested positive for the coronavirus while the Reggae Boyz were en route to Saudi Arabia in November. So the Humble Lions’ shotstopper was replaced by promising Cavalier keeper Jaedine White, who got his international first call-up in over a year.
London-born goalkeeper Dillon Barnes is surprisingly brought into the squad despite having playing just five senior games over the past two seasons. He has mainly been involved at non-league level in England, yet signed a two-year deal with Queens Park Rangers in July 2019.
However, he has yet to play for the English Championship side although made a single appearance on loan with League One outfit Burton Albion. And this season he was between the sticks for four matches during a three-month spell at Scottish giants Hibernian.
English-born and Swedish-based winger Blair Turgott gets his first nod from Jamaica. Four years ago he was controversially charged with offences relating to fraud and money laundering.
He kicked off his career at West Ham United’s Academy and made his senior debut against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup in 2012. A short spell with Coventry City followed before he was snapped up by Leyton Orient in 2015.
His impressive form during a year-long spell with his home-town non-league team of Bromley in 2016, where he netted a dozen goals, earned an England C call-up. He then make his move into the Football League with Stevenage but failed to live up to expectations, so dropped back to non-league level with Boreham Wood and then Maidstone.
Turgott, who represented England up to U19 level, has bagged 14 goals in 52 matches since signing for Swedish Premier Division side Östersunds FK in 2019 from Maidstone.
Unattached midfielder Ravel Morrison returns to the squad. English-born journeyman Morrison, who earned his two caps in the Saudi Arabia friendlies, has been without a club since leaving Dutch team ADO Den Haag in January after just four appearances.
Alvas Powell, who has played 49 times for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz, is also unattached. The former Portmore United midfield star spent just two months with Sudan Premier League’s Al-Hilal Club. At the end of March he requested that his contract was terminated. The country is not safe as there remain conflicts and overtones of dangerous political turmoil.
Although Whitmore would like to have been given the opportunity to run his eye over more players, it remains up in the air as to whether a trio of English-born strikers will become part of the Jamaica set-up. West Ham United’s Michail Antonio, Southampton’s Nathan Redmond and Brentford’s Ivan Toney are all eagerly wanted by the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) in a bid to qualify for next year’s highly lucrative World Cup finals in Qatar.
Due to the continued coronavirus crisis affecting Japan, a fourth international team that was wanted for a mini-tournament failed to materialise leaving the Japan Olympic team to warm-up for the Games.
Whitmore faces Japan at the Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Hokkaido on Thursday 3 June. Hajime Moriyasu’s side are FIFA-world ranked no.25 and showed why they are such a strong side when they destroyed Mongolia 14-0 in March’s World Cup qualifier.
Last year they beat both the Ivory Coast and Panama 1-0 before they suffered a 2-0 reversal to Mexico, with their most recent friendly resulting in a 3-0 success over South Korea two months ago.
Although Japan squeezed past the Boyz 1-0 in 2014, courtesy of a Nyron Nosworthy own goal, in their previous encounter it was Whitmore – a former defensive-minded midfielder – who bagged a brace to sting Japan 2-1 in Lyon during the France 1998 World Cup finals.
The Boyz then tackle Serbia, who are ranked three places higher than Japan, at the NOEVIR Stadium Kobe in Misaki Park, Hyogo-ku in Kobe on Monday 7 June. The sides have played each other just once, Serbia registering a 2-1 success in a 2014 friendly played in the United States.
Serbia, handed a relatively easy World Cup qualifying group that features Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Portugal and Republic of Ireland, scored their first World Cup finals victory in eight years with a 2018 victory over Costa Rica.
Japan, who are set to play five matches in 19 days (28 May-15 June), will take on Serbia at the NOEVIR Stadium Kobe on Friday 11 June.
The following day the Japan Olympic team will be aiming to pose Whitmore’s troops problems inside the Paloma Mizuho Stadium in Nagoya.
Despite a more balanced squad for over two years, the Jamaica head coach faces a huge task in trying to keep such hungry and talented teams as Japan and Serbia at bay. At least for the final friendly he could opt for a more experimental line-up ahead of the Gold Cup and the region’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The scouting of British-born players with some Jamaica heritage appears to have taken precedent over the hefty sums of money ploughed in by the JFF to their Training Camps at the Mona Campus at the University of West Indies in Kingston, with just four island-based players named in the latest squad. Mount Pleasant hot-shot Kevaughn Isaacs and Harbour View midfielder Luca Levee join goalkeeping duo Taylor and White as the only Jamaica-based representatives.
JFF president Michael Ricketts touted names in March of British-born top-class players that he claimed on national television wished to be part of the Jamaica set-up to tackle the road to Qatar 2022.
Yet the majority of these stars have still not appeared, which has left the JFF seemingly chasing shadows and still desperately trying to secure big names to help the Boyz navigate their way to the Middle East.
The JFF’s dogged determination to strengthen the squad for the sport’s showpiece tournament is commendable, but commitment from players is urgently required as only three nations from eight CONCACAF sides automatically qualify for Qatar 2022 with Costa Rica, Curaçao, Mexico and the United States the biggest threats to denying Jamaica.
Should Whitmore mastermind some impressive displays against highly-ranked Japan and Serbia, by bringing out the best from his squad, there may be no need to add more faces to his long-term plans. He already has the exciting talents of Bailey and Lowe already waiting in the wings for a shot of World Cup glory.
JAMAICA SQUAD
Goalkeepers | Dillon Barnes (Queens Park Rangers, England), Andre Blake (Philadelphia Union, USA), Dennis Taylor (Humble Lions, Jamaica), Jaedine White (Cavalier, Jamaica)
Defenders | Amari’i Bell (Blackburn Rovers, England), Wes Harding (Birmingham City, England), Michael Hector (Fulham, England), Kemar Lawrence (Toronto FC, Canada), Luca Levee (Harbour View, Jamaica), Damion Lowe (Al-Ittihad, Egypt), Adrian Mariappa (Bristol City, England), Liam Moore (Reading, England), Ethan Pinnock (Brentford, England)
Midfielders | Kevaughn Isaacs (Mount Pleasant, Jamaica), Oniel Fisher (LA Galaxy, USA), Kevon Lambert (Phoenix Rising FC, USA), Tyreek Magee (KAS Eupen, Belgium), Ravel Morrison (unattached), Kasey Palmer (Bristol City, England), Alvas Powell (unattached), Blair Turgott (Östersunds FK, Sweden), Lamar Walker (Miami FC, USA), Devon Williams (Miami FC, USA)
Forwards | Jahshaun Anglin (Miami FC, USA), Cory Burke (Philadelphia Union, USA), Bobby Decordova-Reid (Fulham, England), Javon East (Santos de Guápiles, Costa Rica), Junior Flemmings (Birmingham Legion, USA), Andre Gray (Watford, England), Shamar Nicholson (Charleroi, Belgium)
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