By LeVaughn Flynn, Staff ReporterTECHNICAL DIRECTOR of Jamaica's football teams, Carl Brown, said he isn't too worried about the senior team not having adequate practices leading up to their August 18 date with the United States in World Cup qualifying action.
"I don't see it doing us any harm," Brown said recently. "This is not unique to us. This is what is happening across the world. FIFA has given us 48 hours in which the clubs have to release the players," he said.
"The Americans are going to suffer the same fate. They are in a position now where they are not going to play any practice games apart from the one they play on the 11th against Poland so they basically are in the same shoes and they are probably pondering the same questions we are.
"The (Jamaica) players are in pre-season training so we know that physically they will be good," he said.
Brown was speaking at a press conference last week at the Terra Nova Hotel, Kingston where the JFF addressed the media on the 'Journey to Germany' campaign.
Brown and coach Sebastiao Lazaroni will have to improvise on their preparations for the encounter. They leave the island today for England to see some of the players in action to give the new coach an idea of who he will be working with.
PLAYING OVERSEAS
With a greater portion of the squad playing professionally overseas, the clubs which own the players are reluctant to release them for practice games. An extensive 27-man squad was named for camp and Brown justified this by saying: "The squad we have named is really a precaution. We have 14 days to request the players from the clubs, anything beyond that the clubs tend to give us a hard time, so we have just safe-guarded ourselves by sending out invitations to all the players."
Brown added that injuries, particularly ones days before the game, were one of his greatest concerns.
"The Division One, Two and Three players play at least two games before they return here on the 15th so we have to keep our fingers crossed that they don't pick up any injuries because that could be our greatest setback," he said.
Jamaica have never won a game against the U.S. Dismissing Jamaica's history against the U.S. as mere statistics, coach Lazaroni said streaks were there to be broken.
"Although we've never beaten them, that is in the past. We have to try again and get results better than before," Lazaroni said. "Our tactical discipline is the base for our players now and they have to work from that."
