Wall optimistic about Ja project
Published:Sunday | September 25, 2022 | 12:12 AMDaniel Wheeler - Staff Reporter
THE NEWEST addition to the national senior coaching staff, led by head coach Heimir Hallgrimsson, is under no illusions about the task that he has in front of him.
However, freshly minted assistant coach John Wall has a cautiously optimistic approach to the Jamaica project, optimistic about the potential and cautious about adapting to the task.
Wall is one of the two coaches Hallgrimsson has brought with him for a four-yearlong journey that begins on Tuesday in their international friendly against Argentina at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey and hopefully culminates in qualification for the 2026 World Cup in North America.
Wall, who hails from Sweden, has worked through the ranks of the football pyramid of his homeland with his most recent job being a video analyst for the Finland national team from 2015-2016.
Similar to Hallgrimsson, Wall believes in the potential of the team.
Additionally, he is mindful that approaching this job will require adapting to his new environment before helping to create the type of changes that will see concrete results on the field.
“I think the overall process of building something is always intriguing for me. But that is a general piece. I have been to Jamaica before. It has huge potential. But right where we are at right now, is to observe and learn and do a proper evaluation after that. I think that jumping to conclusions at this point is not something you want to do,” Wall told The Sunday Gleaner.
Describing himself as a team player, Wall acknowledges that the limited time with the players, the majority of whom were a part of the last qualifying cycle and the Concacaf Nations League last June, is just one step on the ladder in creating a culture and identity which they can vault from, with Argentina in his mind being the best opponent to test themselves.
“If you don’t compare yourself to lions, who are you comparing yourself to? Playing a top-three team in the role who is challenging for the World Cup, it doesn’t get better than that. Your deficiencies, whatever it might be or your potential might, it might set the tone, or it might not,” Wall said.
“It’s the first two days of a 1,000-mile pilgrimage. So for me, it’s whatever we can do at this point to be less (complicated) and condensed. Making arbitrary promises you are not getting that from me. But first and foremost I would like to get to know the players.”
Wall shares Hallgrimsson’s assessment of the talent pool that Jamaica has, the head coach suggesting there was more to work with than the Iceland project, which yielded relative success.
However, Wall says that it is necessary to be able to reach the local fans to be a part of the process of seeing Jamaican football advance.
“We need to connect with the people and if we don’t have the people, we are nothing. So for me, it’s an ambitious project with an unexpected talent pool that even Jamaicans are not aware of. And I say that with utmost sincerity and humbleness,” Wall said.
“Jamaicans have been spread all over the world. There are places I’m setting up a system in monitoring their progression and to actually face data. I think that’s part of it. I would not say that’s the near feature, but that is the start. To monitor players all over the globe and benchmark it.”