Assistant coach of Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Boyz Vassell Reynolds is confident his troops can book a spot at the 2025 FIFA Under-17 World Cup set for November 5-27 in Qatar.
The fate of the young Reggae Boyz will be determined in February when they take on El Salvador, the Cayman Islands and St. Lucia in Group H of Concacaf U17 Qualifying in Guatemala, with the group winners booking their spot in Qatar.
“Very confident,” Reynolds said in an interview with BAM Sports TV on Monday on the confidence in this group to get through the qualifiers.
“We believe in the abilities of this very talented group. It’s just to continue to work hard over the next couple of weeks and, having assessed the group that we are in, we’re not taking anything for granted. We figure that all three games will be challenging and that’s how we will be approaching it. It’s a very good opportunity for us and once we put our mind to it and work hard, we should be successful,” Reynolds added.
As far as preparation for the qualifiers is concerned, there have been a number of camps this year, both locally and overseas, for the youngsters to hone their skills and build chemistry with the hope of guiding Jamaica to their first U17 World Cup since 2011 when they were knocked out in the group stage.
The most recent camp was held at the Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence at UWI Mona in Kingston.
“I think it has gone well for us,” Reynolds said of the recently ended camp.
“The fundamental aim of this camp was to mimic what the schedule will be like in Guatemala. We got in three games and a couple of training sessions in between. The goal was to improve our consistency in the different phases of the game and also to get in some good performances and see where we are in terms of getting into the final phase of preparation come January,” he added.
Reynolds also spoke of the importance of these locally and overseas based camps, especially to players based in Jamaica.
“These camps have been very key, especially the one in Florida. It lends us some level of exposure. Playing overseas is a quite different environment altogether and I think those experiences garnered by the team would’ve gone a long way in building self-confidence and some level of exposure, especially for our local players,” he said.
Prior to the qualifiers, the Boyz have been invited to Mexico’s prestigious Torneo del Sol tournament hosted by the North American nation’s football federation from January 6-11 next year.
This tournament will feature 16 teams, including Mexico’s U-17 and clubs from Mexico’s Professional Third Division League. Trinidad & Tobago, Guatemala, and Panama will also add to the excitement.
Jamaica will open their World Cup qualifying campaign on February 10 against St. Lucia.
“With a month away, I think we’re making some strides. Clearly, we still need to work on our consistency of play in both phases of the game and our individual performances. I think that is coming together quite nicely,” Reynolds said.