Peart commends ‘brave’ U14 Boyz after title win

Having claimed the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Boys’ Under-14 Challenge Series title on Sunday, Reggae Boyz U14 head coach Andrew Peart has applauded his players for what he described as a “brave” performance throughout the tournament.

Jamaica ended their campaign on a high with a 7-1 drubbing of French Guiana in the final at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Trinidad and Tobago.

The team ended the competition undefeated with six wins from as many games, scoring 25 goals along the way and only conceding twice.

Peart commended the team’s efforts saying the players were “brave” in their style of play.

He said their display was in line with the way his coaching staff had instructed them to take to the field.

“For the overall team performance, I must commend the players’ ability to display on the field the ideas that we had brought across to them in how we want them to play,” he stated. “I think it was really good of them to actually be brave all the time and try to play a certain way. From that aspect, we’re very pleased and of course being champions is rewarding in its own right.”

Peart also applauded the team’s maturity in how they responded when they found themselves trailing their opponents.

In the semifinals against Puerto Rico and final against French Guiana, Jamaica had conceded first in both games yet were able to pull off a 3-1 and a 7-1 comeback respectively.

Peart said he was not concerned about trailing in both knockout games as he was confident the team would get the result at the end.

“In those moments when we had gone behind, the state of the game was actually either balanced or we were dominating. We were pretty confident in our ability to say we can still play and get ourselves restored on the scoresheet.

A really good display

“I think also the boys displayed some true Jamaican qualities in terms of resilience. Jamaican people on a whole are resilient and they embodied that in the games, saying we were down but we’re not out. It was a really good display from them.”

Peart said the next step will be for these players to matriculate into older age groups as they continue their development under the watchful eyes of their coaches.

He is confident these players can form a core part of Jamaica’s national football programme for years to come.

“What we now look forward to is for the entire team to mature and increase their output in terms of technical and tactical quality as they move forward into the under-15 and the years to come.”