Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) technical director René Simoes (right) gestures while briefing strikers Roen Nelson (second right, partly hidden), Navion Boyd (back to camera) and Keammar Daley (left), while assistant coach Paul Young looks on during their national senior team's practice session at Barbican playing field yesterday. - LeVaughn Flynn photo

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) technical director, René Simoes, in his first training session since returning to lead the country's football programme, said he was pleased with the level of quality shown by the local based players.

Simoes, who was responsible for steering Jamaica to a historic World Cup Finals berth in France in 1998, is here in his second stint as technical director. He is currently preparing the Reggae Boyz for their friendly international against Costa Rica next week Wednesday at the National Stadium.

"I am happy with the interest that the players have shown in practice but the progress cannot be measured now because this would take up to six months or up to a year," said Simoes, following the training session at Barbican playing field yesterday.

Better job

Commenting further, he observed: "I think the coaches here are doing a better job with some of these players here in Jamaica, I think the players here have a lot more than what I saw before," he added.

"I didn't see extra class players like a Walter Boyd or a Theodore Whitmore but may be they are here but I didn't see that so far."

Simoes added that he told the players to be more composed in practice because it is not the practice that takes you to perfection, it's the perfection of practice that you need close to perfection and that is what I'm looking for in the players.

"I want whenever they practise they put themselves in it a hundred per cent to improve on their quality because we have a problem here in Jamaica, scoring goals, and the players need to compose themselves whenever we are in the opponents area," Simoes explained.

He added: "They (players) started the practice one way and finished the other way and that is the very interesting point of practice today.

"It is good for the first day because most players played yesterday (in the Premier League) and so today was a light training session" noted Simoes, who recently guided Coritiba to the Serie B title and promotion to the top flight of Brazilian football.