Melton Williams, Staff Reporter
Havana:
JAMAICA'S hopes of qualifying for the 10th International Hockey Federation (FIH) Men's World Cup in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia in 2002 appear very slim.
However, they can gain international exposure from opposing talented teams and Jamaica will be hoping to do just that and more when they square off against the United States today at 5 p.m. (4 o'clock Jamaica time) in their second game of the Americas Cup Pool B match at the Antonio Maceo Stadium.
The Jamaicans are not expected to face an acid test, as they did against Canada in their opening game on Thursday when they went down 9-0. The fact that both teams are young and are here mostly for the exposure will lead to a more competitive game said USA coach, Shiv Jagvay.
Jamaica's head coach Norris Davis is expecting more attacking play from his team. Match statistics, after the opening game, showed that Jamaica did not take a single shot at Canada's goal.
But Davis said he is not worried.
"In terms of penetration of Canada's 25 and D that was non existent. But this was to be expected. In our preparation, especially for Canada, we did spend a lot of time on defensive work because we knew that we would not have the ball position to penetrate their defence.
"We planned on not to have any rebound and penalty corner scored against us and we did achieve that. They had 13 penalty corners and only scored three and our defence played very well to achieve that," concluded Davis.
Those defensive statistics of Jamaica impressed Jagvay, whose team crushed Mexico 6-0 yesterday, on a day when Canada took a firm grip on Pool B, by beating Chile 3-2 for maximum six points. The USA are the only other team to gain points in the Pool.
The USA team, just like Jamaica, do not fancy their chances for the World Cup, as they think the presence of Pan Am champions Canada, who finished 7th in the 1998 World Cup in Holland, will be too much to overcome. Only the group winners will advance to the July 2 final.
However, looking towards today's assignment with Jamaica, Jagvay said: "I was impressed with their athleticism, it's a young team which has lots of talent and potential. And take nothing away from the Jamaicans because I know it is not easy to play against a team like Canada who are ranked very high in the world ranking. I thought they did well," said Jagvay.
The USA coach described his team as very young, although they outplayed Mexico yesterday, but said that Jamaica's style of play will lead to a more competitive game.
Jamaica are expected to start goalkeeper Maceo Sibbles, who arrived in Havana on Thursday. Sibbles had an early morning practice session with the team yesterday.
Jamaica are expected to field a similar team, which went down to Canada on Thursday. Five debutants were drafted into the starting team and at least four should retain their places. Cleon Woodstock (KC), Michael McLarty (KC Old Boys), Richard Brown (Wolmer's), Gregory Simpson (Circus Circle) look set to retain their places, while second string goalkeeper Oudney Hewitt could give way to Sibbles.
Today's matches are: Cuba vs Peru (8:00 a.m.), Mexico vs Chile (3:00 p.m.) and Jamaica vs USA (5:00 p.m.).