STATHS banking on White’s early return
St Andrew Technical’s coach Philip Williams is banking on an early exit for Jamaica at this month’s CONCACAF Under-20 championships. Williams does not want his ace goalkeeper and captain, Jaedin White, to be away from the team for too long.
The championships start today in Bradenton, Florida, and ends on November 21, and Williams wants his captain back in the team ahead of the Manning Cup semi-finals.
White was among four schoolboy footballers who departed the island yesterday as part of Jamaica Under20 squad to participate in the qualifiers and Williams told STAR Sports that based on the team’s preparation and the quality opponents in Jamaica’s group, he does not expect a lot from the young Reggae Boyz.
“Based on projections and the group that Jamaica is in, he (White) might only miss a knockout match. He should be back here by the 10th or the 11th (end of group stage). We don’t think they will progress (beyond this stage),” he stated. White will be missing for the Champions Cup game this weekend but Williams said this was expected. “The experience of Jaedin at the back will definitely be missed but we have gone through the entire preseason without him. He (White) will be missed as captain, but we have every confidence in our number two Ricardo Laing. The other schoolboys included in the squad are, Kingston College’s Cassean Priestly, the Wolmer’s pair of Kimani Gibbon and Tajay Griffiths and Clarendon College’s Nique Daley. The Jamaican team, which is being coached by Jerome Waite, will play in Group B alongside Mexico, Aruba, Nicaragua, Grenada and Saint Martin. A record 34 teams, divided into four groups of six and two groups of five, will contest the first round. Only the six group winners will advance to the next stage, where they will be divided into two groups of three. The two group winners and both runners-up at this stage will qualify for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland next year.
The rest of the squad reads: St Michael Edwards, Nique Daley, Jamoi Topey, Kaheem Parris, Damani Osei, Trey Bennett, Nathan Thomas, Tevin Rochester, Javain Brown, Jeremy Verley, Leonardo Fogarthy, Tyreek Magee, Leonardo Jibbison, Shandel Senior and Ricardo McIntosh.
Jamaica will play their opening game tomorrow against Grenada at 6:30 p.m.