Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter
Johnson
JAMAICA'S REGGAE Boyz will continue their build-up to the CONCACAF Gold Cup in a warm-up fixture against Honduras at the Herndon Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at 4:30 p.m. today (Ja. time).
The Jamaica squad boasts a number of new players, but will miss the presence of Jermaine Hue, who marshalled the midfield in a winning Digicel Cup campaign.
Hue was dropped for not reporting to a training camp which started on Monday, as he was off the island and never notified the team staff.
STRATEGY
Without the creativity of the little midfielder, Jamaica, with Luton Shelton at the centre of the attack, will look to Jermaine Johnson and Omar Daley to
get by the quick and deceptive Honduras team.
There are some other players included who are largely untried at senior level like Tivoli Gardens' Christopher Nicholas, the premier league's leading scorer and Portmore United linkman Jason Morrison.
With the Gold Cup fast approaching, Jamaica's head coach, Wendell Downswell has invested a little more in his overseas-based players, as he has called for the services of Tyrone Marshall, Claude Davis, Johnson and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts.
Albeit just a practice game, Downswell's methods will also be tested as the latest in a long line of head coaches has tried to utilise local talent in the belief that the quality present in the local league is good enough to compete at the international level with the right grooming.
That belief has also been manifested in a vested interest being paid to the youth within the country.
It has led to the persistence in young Jermaine Taylor, who is yet to prove himself as a class international player, in a defensive set-up with Marshall, Davis, Damion Stewart and left-sided duo of Robert Scarlett and Garfield Reid.
