Harbour View, Reno ready for battle

Nodley Wright, Staff Reporter

AFTER taking a break last week to facilitate Jamaica's World Cup qualifier against the United States, the National Premier League continues this week with its second set of matches.

Four matches will be played today with two in the Corporate Area. In action today in the Corporate Area are former champions and early favourites, Harbour View, who host another previous winner, Reno. Waterhouse and Hazard, both ex-champions as well, meet at Ferdie Neita Park. Both games begin at 3p.m.

At Ferdie Neita Park which serves as home ground to both teams, the competition is expected to be keen. Both teams will be basically playing away from home as Hazard are using St. Catherine as their home base for the first time this year, while Waterhouse were forced to play away from Drewsland because of new JFF regulations.

This game matches two "young" coaches, Lenworth Hyde of Hazard and Chris Ziadie and each would be eager to get the better of the other but what would be more important is the matter of making an early impact in the competition. Hazard edged Duhaney Park 2-1 in their opening game, while Waterhouse lost 1-2 to Reno.

"Hazard right now is in front of us along with Harbour View. So to stay within striking distance we need to get past this team. We can't let them get ahead of us by six points. If they win they'd be ahead by six points and that would be hard to recapture with only nine games in the first round," explained Waterhouse's Chris Ziadie about the task ahead of them.

Hyde on the other hand is more intent on maintaining the progress they started with their opening win.

"My main thought is to win the three points. We started out well and we'd like to maintain the momentum," he said.

Both coaches have expressed respect for the opposing team.

Ziadie will be aiming to use this game to change the perception that "Hazard has Waterhouse's ticket. I hope to change that or break that tradition," he said.

"We respect the Waterhouse team, it's a very good team and we've to play them with is a certain level of respect. They've a very good attack and our strong point is defence so I think it'll be a very good game. What we'll try to do is to win the crowd support. If we can beat Waterhouse then the crowd can swing our way," said Hyde of his aim.

For Waterhouse to achieve their objective they will have to get good games from the recently-returned Kevin Lamey and Damion Powell, in addition to Irvino English, Alberto Fray and Damion Williams.

Hazard, on the other hand, will count on their sturdy defensive line led by goalkeeper Shawn Sawyers and including national representatives Claude Davis and Sheldon Battiste. National captain Linval Dixon is doubtfull with a calf strain.

The very lively midfielder Omar Daley is a key player and he could be well-supported by the skilful but inconsistent Kevin Deerr - if he turns up in a playing mood. On the forward line though Hazard have been impotent.

One edge that they could have over Waterhouse is that they have had their coach over a longer period of time and would have adjusted more readily to his style of play.

Ziadie has not had a good month in the job nor did he have some of his key players at the beginning. Understanding his team will and is taking time.

He said: "Waterhouse plays a 3-4-3 system and I'm not too comfortable with it... It's a very attacking formation but it weakens your defence. It's a system I'm not familiar with. The players are very comfortable with it.

"It'll take about three to four games to assess the team and the players properly - their strengths and weaknesses - and by then I'll get a handle of the situation. I'm not expecting much for the first round, but we'll definitely be there for the second and third."

Playing at their home ground, Harbour View should be given the edge over Reno. With a man such as Jermaine Hue, the best passer of the ball in the country and one who can count himself unfortunate not to be in the national squad if not the starting lineup, they have a big weapon. Add to Hue the presence of forward Fabian Taylor, overlapping wingback Robert Scarlett, midfielder Kahreem Cooke and the back in the country defenders Clifton Waugh and Oneil Smith and you have a team that translates to almost unbeatable - in Jamaica. There is also goalkeeper Leon Gordon and utility player Craig Stewart to look to for quality.

Reno's main strengths are the athletic and fearless goalkepeer Aaron Lawrence and the free-scoring Kirk Wright. There are also national representative Craig Gordon (forward) and defender Jeffrey Foster, but the loss of Dean Ffolkes to migration and the deceased Favian Johnson should hurt them.

Reno are known for playing well away and had a very good away record last season. Wright has fond memories of the Harbour View Mini-Stadium as he hit a hat-trick there last season to give his team a come-from-behind 3-2 victory. A win for Reno will depend on a similar performance.

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