Opponent watch: Jamaica

[SCF08]

Jamaica are trying to get a new interesting batch of players ready to suit up.

 

 

[sebdeserio]

Good for the region and us to have better competition but that's a big list of good players in various positions. Including Antonio that's nearly a full 11 of new starters and/or subs.

[Shway]

These guys are building out B and C teams, never mind the A team. 

Crazy. 

Concacaf is going to be really entertaining between the Caribbean clubs getting better.

At this rate, they will be a strong contender for the Gold Cup.

Edited March 3, 2021 by Shway

[CanadaFan123]

I'll believe it when I see it. 

[PiedPilko]

Yeah but... they'd better look out when we get Yankov back!

[CanadaFan123]

For context, Kalvin Phillips just used this exact strategy to leverage an England call up. 

[Dominic94]

Knew about Moore but Max Aarons is a big one.

the region getting better isn’t a bad thing at all, we need it to improve and clearly it will and has. Who’d have thought Jamaica and Suriname would recruit as many duals in a few months as we have over the past 7 years.

Marshall Rutty is Jamaican btw guys.

 

I looked up quickly where these guys play and if they play and that’s basically a new time of starters like the OP said. At least at CB I don’t see why those 2 don’t start and even in mid. They can win the gold cup, and the days of Mexico and USA romping the region are over. I think we have more top end talent but all around when you factor in CB’s and depth Jamaica are better for now, if we had a few CB’s I think we’d have the edge. 
 

I think our ST depth is better, they have us on the flanks depth wise, we’re probably better in midfield and have the same depth. Full back they probaly have the best one in Aarons if you play Davies in mid but I think we have the next few. I’d say a wash, and GK is equal but I’ll take our depth...

then it’s coaching and well we ain’t winning that. 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Dominic94

[Floortom]

A few of these guys like Holgate and Toney are too early to commit to Jamaica as they are still on Englands radar but This only strengthens my view of Jamaica as #3 in concacaf 

Edited March 3, 2021 by Floortom

[Shway]

2 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

For context, Kalvin Phillips just used this exact strategy to leverage an England call up. 

Lol Kalvin Phillips isn’t comparable to any of these guys except Mason Holgate. The rest are all done with England. Specifically Redmond, Hayden, and A. Gray. Demerai Gray could have a great season in Germany at Leverkusen- but even then he’s with Jamaica’s Alphonso Davies.

As good as Ivan Toney has been for the Bees, he won’t get called in before Bamford, Watkins does and there’s guys like Wilson in addition to Kane, Abraham, Calvert-Lewin. 

Moore, and Roofe already have their passports.

This is all in addition to the players they already have. Jamaica is getting scary


 

[Dominic94]

1 minute ago, Shway said:

Lol Kalvin Phillips isn’t comparable to any of these guys except Mason Holgate. The rest are all done with England. Specifically Redmond, Hayden, and A. Gray. Demerai Gray could have a great season in Germany at Leverkusen- but even then he’s with Jamaica’s Alphonso Davies.

As good as Ivan Toney has been for the Bees, he won’t get called in before Bamford, Watkins does and there’s guys like Wilson in addition to Kane, Abraham, Calvert-Lewin. 

Moore, and Roofe already have their passports.

This is all in addition to the players they already have. Jamaica is getting scary


 

I remember it being said Jamaica could easily recruit a bunch of players and become scary, same as Suriname, and here they are. 

[Shway]

9 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

Marshall Rutty is Jamaican btw guys

This is like saying Simeon Jackson is born in Jamaica. 

Canadians who are Jamaican eligible don’t snub playing for Canada to play for Jamaica. It doesn’t, and will never happen. 

By the time you want to switch, you’re not good enough for Jamaica. I.e Jordan Hamilton. 

[Floortom]

Based on original tweet - that means Antonio is not in the process of obtaining passport ?

[Kadenge]

Outsourcing has finally arrived in Concacaf 

[CanadaFan123]

27 minutes ago, Shway said:

Lol Kalvin Phillips isn’t comparable to any of these guys except Mason Holgate. The rest are all done with England. Specifically Redmond, Hayden, and A. Gray. Demerai Gray could have a great season in Germany at Leverkusen- but even then he’s with Jamaica’s Alphonso Davies.

As good as Ivan Toney has been for the Bees, he won’t get called in before Bamford, Watkins does and there’s guys like Wilson in addition to Kane, Abraham, Calvert-Lewin. 

Moore, and Roofe already have their passports.

This is all in addition to the players they already have. Jamaica is getting scary


 

Toney is going to move to a big club before he ties himself to Jamaica, let's be realistic here. If he flops then maybe he will choose Jamaica.

Kalvin Phillips was a shock call and it came after he had played ... maybe 5 PL matches? He then said he was considering Jamaica and voila he was called up prematurely. How can any of the others rule themselves out? This sort of thing happens every cycle.

[jordan]

1 minute ago, Kadenge said:

Outsourcing has finally arrived in Concacaf 

Jamaica did this for world cup 98. 

[gator]

33 minutes ago, CanadaFan123 said:

Toney is going to move to a big club before he ties himself to Jamaica, let's be realistic here. If he flops then maybe he will choose Jamaica.

Kalvin Phillips was a shock call and it came after he had played ... maybe 5 PL matches? He then said he was considering Jamaica and voila he was called up prematurely. How can any of the others rule themselves out? This sort of thing happens every cycle.

Toney will do well in Concacaf, I watched him against QPR recently and he spent most of the match laying on the deck after yet another dive and fake injury!

[Shway]

56 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Based on original tweet - that means Antonio is not in the process of obtaining passport ?

Yea he is. I think he might already have it. 
He’s supposed to/intends to play at the Gold Cup.

Which will be the perfect place for all their new recruits in preparation for the Ocho.

I never thought Jamaica’s attack was in need of strengthening with the options they currently have. What stands out to me is that with these incoming guys their defensive middle has gotten a lot stronger. 

[Shway]

9 minutes ago, gator said:

Toney will do well in Concacaf, I watched him against QPR recently and he spent most of the match laying on the deck after yet another dive and fake injury!

Sadly the dark arts of football is still heavily prevalent in Concacaf. And it can make or break you. That’s why I encourage our guys to take part in knowing when to use it - I don’t care if it’s not Canadian.

Brings me to my next point. We talk about Concacaf getting better.... but what about the refs...what about those damn refs.

[jordan]

Maybe Southgate will call a few of them up and give them hope, like when Sven called up Michael Ricketts

 

[Kadenge]

There's no doubt that if Jamaica even gets half of these players they will undoubtly be top 3 and even  challenge the top 2. Suriname and Jamaica would make Concacaf more comptetive and  elevate the level of quality, but is Concacaf really improved in terms of domestic soccer development?  I was excited when Arfield joined our program and would have been happy to see Cristante and Tomori in the fold, but at what point does it become farcical? For me domestic development of young Canadians is paramount for sustainability of our program and it is vital that we are able to move them up to the national team. Seeing players like Osorio, Kaye, Davies, David etc develop in Canada, following their journey through our youth teams, transfers to professional clubs and then becoming starters for the Nats is the ultimate goal in my opionion. I'm not sure what Suriname's and Jamaica's long term objectives are? Will an appearance in the WC improve their domestic development? Will it mean more money for their domestic league or will the plan be to continue looking to the Netherlands and England to fill their rosters? I know that North African countries like Algeria/Tunisia/Morocco use a similar philosophy but again not sure how it improves their domestic players?

[VinceA]

I've been saying for a while it really feels like the Caribbean nations are improving steadily while Central America has stagnated. I'm really interested to see how WCQ shakes out.

[gator]

59 minutes ago, Shway said:

Sadly the dark arts of football is still heavily prevalent in Concacaf. And it can make or break you. That’s why I encourage our guys to take part in knowing when to use it - I don’t care if it’s not Canadian.

Brings me to my next point. We talk about Concacaf getting better.... but what about the refs...what about those damn refs.

I will say David has a long ways to go based on what I saw Sunday, I don't have much hope for the refs getting better, many times they are put in charge of matches that are way past their level of ability all for the sake of experience, there has to be a better way!

[Trois Reds]

28 minutes ago, Kadenge said:

There's no doubt that if Jamaica even gets half of these players they will undoubtly be top 3 and even  challenge the top 2. Suriname and Jamaica would make Concacaf more comptetive and  elevate the level of quality, but is Concacaf really improved in terms of domestic soccer development?  I was excited when Arfield joined our program and would have been happy to see Cristante and Tomori in the fold, but at what point does it become farcical? For me domestic development of young Canadians is paramount for sustainability of our program and it is vital that we are able to move them up to the national team. Seeing players like Osorio, Kaye, Davies, David etc develop in Canada, following their journey through our youth teams, transfers to professional clubs and then becoming starters for the Nats is the ultimate goal in my opionion. I'm not sure what Suriname's and Jamaica's long term objectives are? Will an appearance in the WC improve their domestic development? Will it mean more money for their domestic league or will the plan be to continue looking to the Netherlands and England to fill their rosters? I know that North African countries like Algeria/Tunisia/Morocco use a similar philosophy but again not sure how it improves their domestic players?

At the last World Cup, even the teams that were knocked out in the first round, like Panama, received something like $8 million USD.  Some money goes to the players, but a lot of it goes back to the individual federations who can use it for development, costs for friendlies, domestic league, etc.  Since we haven't been there since '86, Canada continuously misses out.  I remember conversations years ago about how just one WC appearance could help jumpstart our program just because of the prize money for the CSA.

[SpecialK]

Wow this is crazy and amazing for football in North America. I wonder if this is gonna put Major pressure on other Caribbean nations to step up. It seems like everyone is rearming here: Haiti , Jamaica, Curaçao, Suriname and even Grenada who recently hired former Canadian national team coach Michael Findlay. I curious what Bermuda, Barbados and Dominican republic do because they have decent lists of dual Nationals. I thought Canada was doing a great job at getting Duals, we better get some more guys. 

Edited March 3, 2021 by SpecialK

[One American]

I expect Holgate to be there. There was a group of Jamaica-eligible players that met with Southgate back in the Fall to discuss NT prospects,  plus Grealish. Most of those players were called up soon thereafter. Holgate met, but was not. So it seems like he was at minimum keeping his options open. I think D. Gray supposedly met with Southgate at that time, also, and didn't get capped. 

 

It's harder to say about the rest of them. I would be surprised if Toney commits now. But we'll see.