Young ballers leading the way at Cavalier

Technical director of Cavalier, Rudolph Speid, said the club has been giving opportunities in the Red Stripe Premier League (RSPL) to young players who will be in their Under-17 squad for the July 15-21 Gothia Cup in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Since several schoolboys were promoted to the RSPL team, following the conclusion of the Manning and daCosta Cup seasons, they have improved the team to fourth position in the 12-team league.

Cavalier defeated Montego Bay United 1-0 last Thursday and moved to 27 points from 18 games. Cavalier are behind leaders Portmore United (40), Arnett Gardens (36) and Tivoli Gardens (32).

"It is not an improvement in my mind because despite not picking up the points in the early season, I thought that we were playing better," Speid said.

"We have tightened up in the areas that we were letting ourselves down. We were conceding goals against the run of play, that is one of the key areas that had let us down. Now we are collecting the points and have moved up to fourth position to end the year," he explained.

"We will continue with the youth players. In the Montego Bay United game, we started three 17-year-old schoolboys. They are Jamoi Topey (Camperdown), Jeadine White (St Andrew Technical High) and Kaheem Parris (Dinthill Technical). These players are doing just as good as the senior players in the team. We also have other young players in the squad like Valdano Moulton who came off the bench against Montego Bay," he added.

"We are giving the players who will go to the Gothia Cup some experience in the premier league. The Gothia Cup is an Under-17 competition, however, two players over the age limit can be included," Speid shared.