Hall anticipating a positive turn of events, as Vincy Heat prepares to battle Canada
âYes we Canâ. That is the slogan to be used as the build to Vincy Heatâs first leg meeting here, in the World Cup Qualifiers against Canada on June 15.{{more}}
Already humming the tune is Technical Director Stewart John Hall, who has the role as the lead singer.
Hall told SEARCHLIGHT last Wednesday afternoon, âYes, we canâ, as the date with destiny has been whittled down to 43 days.
A quietly optimistic Hall, will be banking on his âBig Fourâ, of Wesley Charles, Cornelius Huggins, Wesley John and Marlon James, to carry the weight of the team, and his younger charges doing the scaffolding.
Hall stated that he is looking forward to a planned camp, to begin in and around the first of June, to fine tune the players.
He is anticipating a positive turn of events that should see the team engaging Cuba, Panama or Venezuela, just prior to the Canada engagement.
Hall said that he was still learning about many of the players.
âI have seen so far 62 playersâ, Hall recalled.
In defending his position for giving every player an opportunity to make the squad, Hall who took up the post in January, said he practically had to start from scratch.
The British born Technical Director, chided his predecessors for their failure to leave a database of the players, so others could follow.
âThere were no proper records, no match reportsâ, he said with some disappointment.
However, he has begun to change that, and reported that he has an evaluation of every training session, every match and has graded each player out of ten on each occasion.
Hall said that following the recent eleven-day tour to Trinidad and Tobago, he was in a better position to assess the players.
But Hall contends that within the time frame left for the tie with Canada, âI have a lot of decisions to makeâ.
He was making reference to team selection and the personnel to fit into his plans.
Things were crystalised for Hall on the Trinidad and Tobago sojourn, as he was able to get more out of the players, and got an opportunity to push them to the limit.
He said he was now in a position to up the training sessions from four days per week to five days, as the players are fitter.
âWe had better facilities to train, we had a field for ourselves. We had stuff like portable goals that are not always available to us here in St. Vincent (and the Grenadines)â, the Technical Director confessed.
âIt was very goodâ, Hall stated.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines played three matches against semi professional clubs there, won one, lost one and drew the other.
Vincy Heat lost to Jabloteh 4-2, beat Joe Public 2-0, and drew against Petrotrin 0-0.
In defending the decision to play against these clubs, Hall said that the clubs in question sport some of the top players from the region, as well as South America, and were worthy opponents.
Hall, while looking immediately at Canada, sees the bigger picture.
âI want to make sure that the Under-17 is well prepared, the Under-20 does well at the CFU Qualifiers, and I am looking ahead to the Digicel. It is all developmentalâ, Hall said.
âThatâs why we are going into the schools, developing centres of excellence, so that we can maintain a ranking of 73 and better that tooâ, concluded.
Following Vincy Heatâs first match against Canada, the return leg is set for Montreal five days later. (RT)
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