“Fail fast, fix it fast and learn fast.” That’s advice Reggae Boyz head coach Paul Hall has dished out to his players ahead of Wednesday’s practice game against a Catalonia XI.
The game which is not an International ‘A’ list affair, is set for Estadi Montilivi at 12:45mpm (EST) and will be used by Hall to assess a number of new and fringe players.
The coach explained that the group came together for less than 48 hours and his aim for the players was simply to get to know each other as quickly as possible and to express themselves in the practice game after just one hour of practice on the pitch.
“I want the players to go out and show me who they are and show us who they are. We’ve had one hour so we haven’t had much time. What we have done is manage to get them into lots of meetings, sessions where they’ve had to get to know each other and get to know each other really quickly, so that’s what I want to see. I want to them come out and get to know each other as much as possible.”
Hall, who replaced former head coach Theodore Whitmore midway through the last FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign, admitted that under these circumstances errors will be made, but that the players should understand that the test will not be for Wednesday’s game only, but for a much longer period.
“I told them if they are going to fail, fail fast and fix it fast and learn fast, so I think we’ve got to learn a lot about each other and we’ve got to make sure we go forward and just learn from this experience.” He added: “A bunch of strangers that have come together to try and win a game of football against a very good Catalonia team, so we know what the job is at hand and the extent of the job and I believe the guys have just got to go out there and be themselves and show us who they are.”
Twenty-six-year-old Huddersfield Town winger Rolando Aarons has been the only absentee from the 20-man squad selected for this game, and Hall was disappointed by his absence.
“Rolando Aarons wasn’t able to come which was quite disappointing because I wanted to see him play and I wanted to see him get some minutes into his legs because he hasn’t really played many first-class minutes.”
Kaheem Parris was said to be a little bit late but that wasn’t due to any fault of his own.
Paul Hall has been impressed by the togetherness of the group and the efforts being made to bond during this short period of time.
“It has been going well, I thought it was really important to get the camaraderie going and that was the most important thing, new players, and I told them what my expectations are. I’ve asked them to put Jamaica first and the camaraderie is just fantastic. We’ve just had a concert here tonight (Tuesday) and everybody got up and even myself I got up and started doing something, I don’t know what it was but I started doing it… but it just shows the togetherness of the group and it’s just unbelievable how they can just get together after pretty much 48 hours and look so close and I believe they will take some memories back, and that’s all I want to do. I want to give people memories that they’ll never forget.”
But with all that being said, Hall, a star player when Jamaica qualified for the 1998 World Cup Finals, is laser-focused on building a competitive team over the next few years.
“I posted on Instagram today (Tuesday) that growth is a process, not a one-time event. You got to take your time and find new talent out there and I’ve been really aggressive in the market trying to look for people who want to play for Jamaica and who want to put Jamaica first and I just want everybody to try and see if they can get behind that growth because this time next year, this time in three years’ time, four, five years’ time we are going to be in a much better place, which starts here and every day that we go is another day to try and grow.
“I really do believe in that and I really want Jamaica to be at the top table again and challenging the greatest teams for honours and to do that you need everybody in our diaspora to try and really become Jamaican footballers, boys and girls. We want to be able to qualify for things and win consistently and if we can do that then we can say we’ve done a good job.”
Paul Hall is using this game as part of the preparation for Jamaica’s opening games in the CONCACAF Nations League on June 7 and 14.
Squad: Ajeanie Talbott, Corey Addai, Dillon Barnes, Jordan Cousins, Jordan Clarke Harris, Joel Latibeaudiere, Kaheem Parris, Blair Turgott, Ramone Howell, Tarick Ximines, Kenroy Campbell, Kameron Lacey, Ricardo Thomas, Oquassa Chong, Junior Flemmings, Neco Brett, Omari Hutchinson, Tyreek Magee, Jamoi Topey.
The delegation is completed by Sheridan Samuels – head of delegation; Paul Hall – head coach, Merron Gordon – assistant coach; Warren Barrett – goalkeeper coach; Lamar Morgan – physical trainer; Roy Simpson, team manager; Bersha Cole – team doctor; Devin Lawson – masseur; Kevin Christie – physiotherapist; Norman Stone – equipment manager.
