Overconfidence cost us – Waite
NATIONAL SENIOR men’s football team assistant coach Jerome Waite said that Jamaica paid the price for going into their friendly international against Canada on Saturday with what he describes as an “overconfident” approach.
The Reggae Boyz defeated the Canadians 2-1 in the Gold Cup quarter-final back in July, but went down 2-0 to the hosts at BMO Field, through first-half strikes from Anthony JacksonHamel (16) and Jonathan Osorio (30).
Although Waite was pleased with the team’s overall performance, he believed they did not show enough respect to their opponents.
“When I analysed the game, we were pretty much overconfident,” he stated after the team arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport yesterday evening. “The defensive
unit played around with the football too much in the early parts of the game, and as a result it cost us two goals,” he said.
However, he thought the team showed a lot of enterprise going forward, and praised the local-based players, whom he thought also represented themselves well.
“When you looked at the players who came on to the pitch, they all gave a pretty good account of themselves. It was good to see some talented youngsters getting the opportunity for the first time, not being complacent, and not panicking, but enjoying themselves and expressing themselves.
“I still believe they could have done a little more, but
maybe they need a bit more playing time. But you have to give them credit. They really performed, although I really expected more,” he said.
He added that with more games and more playing time, the team and the local based players can only get better. “That is something we are looking forward to: getting more games and giving them (players) more opportunities so they will grow.
“It is important (to play more games), and the games we are looking forward to, hopefully we can get them. But the high points of the performance were the number of chances we created, despite us not executing them. So the offensive part of our game has improved,” he noted.