The Cayman Islands football team has nothing to feel ashamed of and can build into one of the best and most respected teams in the Caribbean if the set up can stick together.
Brown is the best man for the job. Photo: Ron Shillingford |
Okay, they lost to Bermuda on Sunday night in the World Cup qualifiers, but that was no disgrace. Bermuda are 43 places above them in the FIFA world rankings, a significant gap in terms of ability. But it did not show at the Truman Bodden over the weekend. Had they capitalised on their early chances, Bermuda’s coach would be looking for a new job now.
Cayman have rarely played at this level in the past four years because of the effects of Hurricane Ivan. The football programme is still regrouping and it’s a young team. Many are students, studying abroad.
There have been calls by Caymanians to get another coach as technical director Carl Brown with his detractors claiming he is not doing a good job. This is nonsense. He is one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the Caribbean.
He was Jamaica’s head coach five times over two decades, honed his craft for a year at English Premiership club Bolton Wanderers and has won regional cups at club and international level.
Brown’s biggest accolade was being Jamaica’s head coach when they got to the World Cup finals in 1998. At the time, the Reggae Boyz were the smallest country in World Cup history to reach the finals.
Brown’s credentials are impeccable. He resisted offers to coach in the US to take up this post. He has done a wonderful job in his seven months here. It takes years to build a team. Alex Ferguson was on the verge of the sack after nearly four years at Manchester United because he hadn’t won anything. Luckily, he won the FA Cup and that gave him the breathing space he needed to go on and become the most successful manager in British football history.
Brown’s critics also ignore or are unaware that apart from keeper Tuda Murphy, Cayman are total amateurs whereas Bermuda had at least two full-time pros and players who have consistently played at a higher level. Anyway, Bermuda has a much bigger pool of players to pick from because they don’t have so many ex-pats in their local leagues. If the Jamaicans, Latinos, Brits, Canadian and Americans were taking out of Cayman’s local leagues there wouldn’t be enough players to make a worthwhile league.
What Cayman needs is a more time and matches, it’s that simple. The policy of bringing over top Jamaican club sides and going on training camps there is a good one. Practice makes perfect and getting international exposure like that raises their level.
Jeffrey Webb, President of the Cayman Islands Football Association, made a shrewd choice in appointing Brown and should have no second thoughts about continuing with him. Webb has big ambitions for Cayman football in future and with the support of Minister of Sport Alden McLaughlin, they are collectively doing a great job.
The mutterings are that the best players were not picked for the national programme. This is always the case because selection is totally subjective. What the sporting public must realise is that without Brown and Webb’s insight Cayman would probably have been slaughtered 10-0 in both games like Grenada did to the US Virgin Islands last week.
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