Waiting Game For Jamaica’s Friendlies With Japan And Serbia Touted
Theodore Whitmore, the Jamaica head coach, could be running his eye over some new recruits as soon as early June with strong rumours of two friendlies next month.
But the teams slated, Japan and Serbia, would be a massive test for an experimental side whoever Whitmore brings in.
Touted dates are for Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz to tackle Serbia on 3 June and then face Japan four days later.
Serbia are FIFA-world ranked no.25 and registered their first World Cup finals success in eight years with a 2018 victory over Costa Rica. For the Qatar 2022 campaign, Serbia are drawn in a relatively easy World Cup qualifying group that features Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, Portugal and Republic of Ireland.
Japan lie just behind Serbia at world no.28, and in March brushed aside Mongolia 14-0 in a World Cup qualifier. Last year they beat both the Ivory Coast and Panama 1-0 before they fell 2-0 to Mexico, with their most recent friendly resulting in a 3-0 success over South Korea two months ago.
Whitmore will no doubt relish meeting Japan. The former defensive-minded midfielder wore the no.11 shirt for the Boyz when he scored twice to register a 2-1 shock success at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais in Lyon during the France 1998 World Cup finals. Their Group H victory remains Jamaica’s sole win in the World Cup finals.
Following Jamaica’s dismal display in March’s exhibition friendly, thrashed 4-1 by a youthful United States, the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) have been eagerly trying to strengthen the squad ahead of July’s CONCACAF Gold Cup and the region’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Yet with Whitmore’s familiar faces having sorted out their contracts with the JFF, there are now concerns that island-based players will be overlooked in favour of British-based recruits. The last time that the JFF invested in Brits to boost their World Cup chances they reached the finals in 1998, but the momentum was not maintained and the Boyz have since failed to negotiate the World Cup qualifiers.
Whether the JFF can attract enough top quality players from England, where there are over 100 potential recruits across the leading four divisions, remains to be seen. The JFF picked the squad for the US exhibition debacle, with no one except Swansea City striker Jamal Lowe impressing from the new faces. The 26-year-old has been on fire since, as his confidence has been sky-high since his inaugural international call-up.
The JFF have implemented their Training Camps at the Mona Campus at the University of West Indies in Kingston to plan for the future, ploughing in hefty sums of money. Yet the scouting of British-born players with some Jamaica heritage appears to have taken precedent.
For most players their dream is to compete in the World Cup finals. So the JFF’s overtures could be in vain as some names touted by JFF president Michael Ricketts aim to be part of the England set-up at Qatar 2022.
Many of those British-based stars approached by the JFF will want to be guaranteed a starting berth. But Whitmore already has his ‘famous five’ automatic starters on the roster before he juggles the squad, namely goalkeeper and captain Andre Blake (45 caps), defenders Kemar Lawrence (60 caps) and Alvas Powell (49 caps), midfield maestro Leon Bailey (eight caps) and defender Damion Lowe (22 caps).
Realistically Jamaica’s chances of reaching Qatar 2022 are slim with only three nations from eight sides automatically qualifying for the showpiece tournament. Costa Rica, Curaçao, Mexico and the United States appear to be their biggest rivals to navigate their way to the Middle East.
So facing teams of the calibre of Japan and Serbia would be a terrific litmus test for Whitmore, however it could be too early when his final squad remains up in the air with a string of top class British-based players being associated but not yet committed to Jamaica.
The JFF will soon make an announcement regarding the possibility of friendly matches before the Gold Cup, with rumours that another team could be added as part of a four-nation mini tournament.
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