While on paper it seems Jamaica has drawn perceived lesser opponents for the Concacaf Men’s Under-20 qualifiers, assistant coach John Wall insists that the young Reggae Boyz will not be grandstanding against anyone, as the main aim beyond qualification is to improve the quality of their play.

In fact, Wall is aware that teams such as Bermuda, Grenada and Martinique, who they will rub shoulders with in Group F, have all been on the upgrade which means the perception of easy games is now a thing of the past.

The 27-team tournament scheduled for February 23 to March 2, will be contested in six groups across five venues in Central America and the Caribbean.

After round-robin play, the group winners will progress to the 2024 Concacaf Men's Under-20 Championship, joining the six top-ranked nations –United States, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic.

With this in mind, Wall pointed to the importance of ensuring the young Reggae Boyz are well prepared to give of their best.

"Obviously there is no simple game in Concacaf, I have learnt that firsthand and bearing in mind also that the trend overall in Concacaf is that the game has become more global, especially where the Diaspora comes in. So, Martinique when it comes to relationship with France and obviously Bermuda and Grenada with the United Kingdom predominantly.

“For us it is kind of a bigger scope, and we take it really seriously. We have been having camps from earlier this year and we are watching the players and identifying them as we go on. For me, it is really important to look at the next generation and the style of how Jamaica plays on a general basis,” Wall said.

“Also, qualifiers are a special kind of animal, you have to take certain things into account such as the number of games in a short space of time, you have players coming in as well as time zone differences. So, we are making all those external factors more internal per se and control the variables as much as we can,” he added.

Wall explained that his course of action has already be set in motion to identify character strengths he wants the young Reggae Boyz to exemplify and create an identity through purposeful planning.

“I have sent my preferred plan to the head of the Technical Committee because for us, it is obviously optimizing the time that we have. So, we want to use this upcoming Fifa window, we want to use December and January. What was done in the past is that players spent a lot of weeks in camps and accumulate too much fatigue heading into a tournament,” Wall reasoned.

“So, the good thing about what we are doing now by having these short camps since March is that it actually gives players time to adapt to the messaging and what we want and how I feel that we need to train and what we need to be. So given time, we can do a lot of things together and I am really looking forward to it myself,” he noted.

That said, the tactician who also works alongside Heimir Hallgrimsson with the senior Reggae Boyz team, expressed delight with how they have incorporated young players into that setup.

“The proof of it is in what we have been doing with the first team with guys like Dexter Lembikisa, Karoy Anderson and Whisper [Dujuan Richards]. So, the process is there and the pathway for the younger players should be there, and we need to have a really inclusive environment,” he stated.

“Jamaica for me is bold and likes to take on challenges and if there is anything I can add, I hope that I can, but I want to see that sense of desperation and urgency when Jamaica is playing football,” Wall ended.

Group A -Cuba, Nicaragua, Belize, British Virgin Islands, and Anguilla
(Venue: Estadio Nacional, Managua)

Group B -El Salvador, Antigua and Barbuda, Suriname, Guyana, and Turks and Caicos Islands (Venue: ABFA Technical Centre, Piggotts)

Group C -Guatemala, Curacao, Aruba, Saint Martin, and Barbados
(Venue: Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores, Guatemala City)

Group D -Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica (Venue: Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain)

Group E -Haiti, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Cayman Islands
(SKNFA Technical Center, Basseterre)

Group F -Jamaica, Bermuda, Grenada, and Martinique (Venue: SKNFA Technical Center, Basseterre)

Reggae Boyz coach Paul Hall will use a combined camp of 18 local senior and 21 U20 players to finalise his 23-man squad to play the three final games of the World Cup Qualifiers.

Sixteen players have confirmed their participation in the games. Jamaica will play El Salvador on March 24^th and Honduras on March 30^th, respectively, at the National Stadium. They will also engage Canada in Toronto on March 27.   

Andre Blake, Dillon Barnes, Amal Knight, Damion Lowe, Richard King, Adrian Mariappa, Ethan Pinnock, Javain Brown, Gregory Leigh, Kevin Stewart, Devon Williams, Andre Gray, Kemar Roofe, Ravel Morrison, Jamal Lowe and Leon Bailey have all confirmed their participation in the games. 

Hall will arrive on the island on Tuesday to conduct the camp along with head coach of the Under-20s, Marcel Gayle. The Under-20s will play in the Concacaf U20 Championship in June.

The senior players selected for the camp are as follows: Amal Knight (Harbour View FC), Oshane Staple (Harbour View FC), Trayvon Reid (Harbour View FC), Jeadine White (Cavalier SC),Kenroy Campbell (Cavalier SC), Richard King (Cavalier SC), Jamoi Topey (Cavalier SC), Dwayne Atkinson (Cavalier SC), Renaldo Webster (Cavalier SC), Denardo Thomas (Waterhouse FC),Ramone Howell (Waterhouse FC), Ricardo Thomas (Waterhouse FC),Odean Pennycooke (Tivoli Gardens FC),Demar Rose (Portmore FC), Ronaldo Cephas (Arnette Gardens FC), Daniel Green (Mount Pleasant Academy), Nicholas Nelson (Molynes United FC),  Alex Marshall (HFX Wanderers).

The Under-20 players selected for the camp are: Kameron Lacey (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Jaden Chin (FC Prime), Dylan Zane (Connecticut College), Jahvar Stephenson (Future Monarchs), Christopher Pearson (Cavalier SC), Lamonth Rochester (Cavalier SC), Jerome McLeary (Cavalier SC), Cleo Clarke (Cavalier SC), Marvin Fagan (Cavalier SC), Tarick Ximines(Harbour View FC), Gavin Burton (Harbour View FC), Devonte Campbell (Mount Pleasant United), Garey Mills (Mount Pleasant United), Tajay Anderson (Mount Pleasant United), Jahneil Wray (Portmore United), Markland Burton (Portmore United), Tyrece Harrison (Vere United), Tyricke Harrison (Vere United) Gregory Cousin                (Vere United), Romain Blake (Waterhouse FC), David Edwards (Waterhouse FC).