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Stewart: Getting a win in Central America is always difficult
November 11, 2021
Former national assistant coach Bradley Stewart says if the Reggae Boyz technical staff did not spend time to properly analyse the El Salvador team, who they face in a Concacaf World Cup qualifying game in San Salvador tomorrow, they could be in for big trouble.
Stewart cautioned that getting a win in Central America is always difficult, and believes coach Theodore Whitmore will be in a better position to take home a win if he and his staff took the time to carefully study their opponents.
"We will have to try and find out what we can about them. The (Jamaica) team has scouts and would have got videos of the games that they played and see their strengths and weaknesses and see how we could counter those weaknesses.
"If we should go into the game without prior knowledge of what their capabilities are, then God help us," he said.
"We are in a difficult place and it is going to be difficult because winning in Central American countries is not something you can have high aspirations about.
"If we don't have prior knowledge of what their capabilities that means we will go out and try to get knowledge of them while the game is going on. So having prior knowledge will put us in a better position," he added.
REQUIRES FULL COMMITMENT
Meanwhile, another former national assistant coach Donovan Duckie said it is crucial all the players are fully committed to the cause and ready to give maximum effort.
"Sometimes effort is greater than talent and we saw this when (Rene) Simoes qualified the team in 1998, where the effort of the players that were not established was even higher than the players that were established.
"So these (current) players that we have playing at a high level, it is important that they are committed to what they are doing. They must make sure they are giving a 100 per cent effort for the country and not only think about self," he commented. El Salvador have played four games at home in the final round of Concacaf World Cup qualifying, scoring just one goal in a 1-0 win over Panama. In other home results they drew 0-0 with both the United States and Honduras before losing 2-0 to Mexico. The Reggae Boyz lost away matches to Mexico (2-1) and the United States (2-0), drew 1-1 with Costa Rica before blanking hosts Honduras 2-0 in their last match.
