Hallgrimsson changes his tune on Argentina friendly
Published:Saturday | January 21, 2023 | 1:14 AMLivingston Scott/Gleaner Writer
National football coach Heimir Hallgrimsson who said he would not have selected the now World Cup champions Argentina as opponents to start his tenure with the Reggae Boyz is now changing his tune.
Although the game was scheduled before the Icelandic coach came on board to lead the programme, in hindsight Hallgrimsson sees it as a good thing, as the game, which Jamaica lost 3-0, has provided him with an insights into the team’s strength and weaknesses and gives him a better idea of what he needs to improve the team.
“I didn’t like playing Argentina in my first game,” he said at the team’s two-day training camp earlier this week. “But we used a lot of clips from that game because they exposed weaknesses of every nation they played.
“We have a lot of clips from the game where we can see good things and bad things and we can correct them and improve. But we played pretty well tactically and in the end it was a good game.”
He also admitted that he was somewhat reluctant about taking a largely local-based squad of players he was totally unfamiliar with to Africa to play Cameroon. However, he thought the players represented themselves very well in the 1-1 draw.
“Second game against Cameroon. I think it was really strange to take only local players to fly them over to Africa. But that game was really good. Hopefully, we can have more games like that,” he said.
The coach called up a 32-man local-based training squad this week and highlighted Kingston College schoolboy sensation Dujuan ‘Whisper’ Richards as an exciting prospect.
However, he noted that there is much more talent here and that it will make his job of selecting a team that much harder.
“There is unlimited talent here. The player pool is so deep. It will be tricky to find the 23 players and the 11 players to start, that will be my hardest task.
“I want to use the opportunity (camp) to try and get the philosophy into this crop of players. Hopefully, with my experience I can put a mark on Jamaican football.
“Normally, I manage to build good teams. I do a lot to improve teams. The next couple of years for the Jamaica national team is really exciting and I think everybody wants to be on board. Not only for the World Cup 2026 but also for the Gold Cup this summer. The international platform is a platform all good players would like to play on, so I think everybody will be on board and we can take the right steps to improve and make the setup work more professional than it has been,” he said. “It is not one thing we need to change. It is a lot of small things here and there.”