By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff ReporterJAMAICA'S TECHNICAL director, Carl Brown, appears more worried about Honduras' veteran coach, 63-year-old Bora Milutinovic, than the 19-man squad the Central Americans have gathered to play the Reggae Boyz in tomorrow's friendly match at the National Stadium.
Milutinovic, a Serb, who last year turned down the opportunity to coach his country, has taken teams to every World Cup tournament for the past five finals - Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), the United States (1994), Nigeria (1998) and China in 2002.
The man who commands the respect of no less an icon than the great Pele, is aiming to make Honduras his sixth Cup finalists in as many tries.
"Basically, we'll see a similar group. We know what they're doing but they have a new coach, Bora Milutinovic, and we know how tricky he is," Brown said yesterday evening as the Reggae Boyz went through their paces during a training session at the National Stadium ahead of tomorrow's 7:30 p.m. match-up.
Jamaica and Honduras will be going all out for one of three possible CONCACAF spots to Germany 2006, two automatic and one OCEANA playoff, when second round qualifying kicks off in the summer.
The 'magical coach'
Hailed as 'the magical coach' by the Chinese when he took them to their first ever finals, Pele had predicted that Milutinovic would also take the Asians into the second round, a feat he had achieved with his four previous teams.
"The Chinese team has a coach with much experience and that is the most important guarantee of China advancing," the Chinese state media quoted Pele as saying then.
However, not only did debutante China not advance from Group C but Bora could not guide the team to any of its 'three wishes' -- winning a match, tying a game or scoring a goal, losing 0-2, 0-4 and 0-3 to Costa Rica, Brazil and Turkey respectively.
However, Brown isn't about to take Milutinovic lightly.
"We're preparing for a tough game against Honduras," he pointed out. "It will be a good game for us at this time, just before the qualifiers.
Milutinovic summoned what has been described as "a strong 19-man squad" with familiar faces such as Julio Cesar Leon and David Suazo, who play in Italy in addition to the Mexico-based foursome of Danila Turcios, Nimrod Medina, Carlos Pavon and Milton 'Tyson' Nunes, the speedy forward, who scored against Jamaica in a 1-0 win in 2001 World Cup qualifying in Tegucigalpa.
"I just spoke to the team and we've set standards," Brown outlined. "We want to continue reaching that invisible bar. We don't want to go below the Uruguayan game right now," he added in reference to the Boyz' big 2-0 win over the South American team last month.
Brown can take comfort that the last time Jamaica played Honduras at the National Stadium, the game ended in a 0-0 tie in 2001 before their road loss. In addition, he has a relatively healthy squad with the exception of Micah Hyde, who was icing a right ankle yesterday evening and watched training from the stands.
Injury
In-form Sunderland striker Darren Byfield will miss his second friendly in a row through injury and Jermaine Hue, who picked up what appeared to be a groin strain in Harbour View's Federation Cup semi-final loss to Waterhouse Sunday, has also been ruled out.
Just two other players were missing from training yesterday, striker Onandi Lowe and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, who were both due to arrive in the island last night.
"Onandi aggravated an old injury," Brown told reporters, commenting on the big striker, who watched from the stands as his new club, Division One Coventry lost 1-2 loss to Reading Saturday.
"He should be okay but apart from Hue and Hyde, everybody should be ready for Wednesday," he added.
The Hondurans were due in the island last night and should train this evening at 6:00 p.m. before the Boyz 4-6 session.
Jamaica:
Donovan Ricketts, Aaron Lawrence, Damion Stewart, Claude Davis, Gerald Neil, Ian Goodison, Tyrone Marshall, Garfield Reid, Fabian Davis, Craig Ziadie, Richard Langley, Jermaine Johnson, Andy Williams, Jonathan Williams, Micah Hyde, Cornel Chin-Sue, Ricardo Fuller, Onandi Lowe and Damani Ralph.
Honduras:
Julio Cesar Lyon, David Suazo, Milton Nunes, Danilo Turcios, NImrod Medina, Carlos pavon, Ivan Guerro, Edgar Alvarez, Amado Fuevera, Donis Escober, Noel Valladares, Milton Palacios, Jose Luis Pineda, Victor Bernardez, Junior Izaguirre, Victor Mena, Elmer Marin, Marcelo Ferreira and Emil Martinez.
