Tournament Schedule 12-team event will decide confederation’s representatives to U-17 World Cup PANAMA CITY, Panama — Defending U-17 World Cup champion Mexico will face Honduras and Cuba, while host Panama will meet Barbados and Jamaica in the first round of the 2013 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship. The tournament draw, which was held today and conducted by CONCACAF General Secretary Enrique Sanz at the Hotel Sheraton Panama, determined the first-round opponents for the April 6-19 event. Host Panama and Mexico, by virtue of its 2011 World Cup finish, were pre-seeded into Group A and Group D, respectively. “We are very excited about this tournament, which will showcase the next generation of our Confederation’s upcoming talent,’ said CONCACAF President, Jeffrey Webb, during his opening speech. “We wish the best of luck to all the qualified teams and hope one of the four teams representing our region at the World Cup will retain the title for this category. Team Jamaica The top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, the winners of which will qualify for the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, October 17-November 8. It will be the first time Panama has […]
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In his last competitive race, Asafa Powell was leading the men’s 100 metres Olympic final about the 30-metre mark. By about 40 metres he had pulled up in pain, another chance for gold gone. Powell’s next competitive run will be in Stawell on Saturday. From the most-watched sporting event in the world in London’s Olympic Stadium, to Victoria’s Wimmera. He smiles at the apparent absurdity of it. But for an athlete who has enjoyed success in Australia – he won Commonwealth gold here in 2006 – it was not a difficult sell to return to Victoria. Stawell has long had a strange capacity to draw the world’s better athletes – former world champion Kim Collins raced there, and last year Powell’s Jamaican teammate Michael Frater also ran – but Powell is another level again. He held the world record for the 100 for nearly three years – running 9.77 seconds three times before cutting that to 9.74 (it was later bettered by Usain Bolt). He has a best of 9.72 and has run under 10 seconds for the 100 more than any other man (88 times). He is adamant that time and Bolt have not irretrievably passed him by. ”No, […]
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Furious Costa Rica coach Jorge Luis Pinto said it was an “embarrassment to football” that Friday’s World Cup qualifier with the United States was played in strong snow, while his federation promised to make an official protest. The U.S. won 1-0 but Pinto was riled the game was played on a snowy field with a covering that became deeper as the game wore on. “It was an embarrassment to football, disrespectful to the game,” an animated Pinto told reporters. The game was played at the 19,374 capacity Dicks Sporting Goods Park, home of Major League Soccer’s Colorado Rapids, nestled at the foot of the Rockie Mountains. Pinto said the “legal conditions” for playing the game were not in place and a Federation official told Costa Rican media that an official protest would be made to FIFA on Saturday. The referee stopped the game briefly in the 55th minute but only to ask ground staff to clear snow from the pitch markings and the game resumed after a few minutes. Costa Rica’s players showed little dissent on the field, going close to an equalizer in the second half, but they vented their anger after the game. “Honestly, it was robbery, […]
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Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz continue to find a World Cup qualfier win against Panama elusive, after drawing 1-1 in their FIFA World Cup qualifier inside the National Stadium on Friday. The Jamaicans, like the Panamanians now sit on two points from as many matches heading into Tuesday’s clash against Costa Rica in San Jose. Goal of the day – Marvin Elliot Jamaica 1-1 Panama, 22’ It wasn’t until the 22nd minute that the home faithful had something to cheer about. Marvin Elliott rose to meet a Demar Phillips corner. Sending the stadium into wild celebrations. Debutant Jermaine Beckford and Luton Shelton linked up well throughout and wide man Garath McCleary found some joy on the right flank, but the Jamaicans were kept at bay by a solid Panama outfit for the remainder of the half. The visitors almost found a way back into the game straight away but Reggae Boyz captain and goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts pushed out his left leg to stop a 28th minute effort from Panama striker Blas Perez, ensuring the Jamaicans went into half-time with the 1-0 lead. Both teams came out of the locker rooms for the start of the second half in buoyant […]
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Whether at home in Jamaica or somewhere abroad, if the Reggae Boyz are playing, these are the must-haves for fans who are going to this football game. If you’ve got suggestions, thoughts or feedback regarding our list of the Top 10 must-haves for a Reggae Boyz football match above, please feel free to post them below. Top 10 Jamaica
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The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union (HKRFU) is proud to be hosting the biggest (and best) ever Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens in the 38-year history of the tournament. For the first time ever, Hong Kong will welcome 28 teams to the Sevens in 2013. This year’s Sevens will comprise the HSBC Sevens World Series (HSBC SWS) competition with the 15 international core teams on the Series plus Asian Sevens champions Hong Kong, alongside a 12-team pre-qualifier competition to determine the eventual entrants for the final HSBC SWS qualification event at the London Sevens in May. The move to 28 teams is the first increase in the Hong Kong Sevens field since the 24-team standard was adopted in 1984. The Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens 2013 will also mark the largest ever tournament held to date as part of the HSBC Sevens World Series since its inception in 1999. As such, it is entirely fitting that the international television coverage is set to break an HSBC SWS record with 23 individual broadcasters taking the live coverage worldwide and live/delayed coverage reaching its widest footprint ever with an expected reach of 257 million homes in 144 countries. Of the 28 […]
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For the sixth time in his outstanding career, Usain Bolt will compete at the Belgacom Memorial, the second of two finals of the Samsung Diamond League, on 6 September 2013. He will decide later in the season whether he will contest the 100m or 200m in Brussels, but either way he is expected to be one of the biggest stars of the meeting. Since making his first appearance in Brussels back in 2007 when he finished third in the 200m (20.14), the Jamaican superstar has notched up four successive victories. Arguably the most impressive of these came in 2008 when he clocked a meeting record of 9.77 into a stiff -1.3m/s headwind. The following year he smashed the meeting record in the 200m with 19.57, which was bettered in 2011 by training partner Yohan Blake with his stunning 19.26. At that same meeting in 2011, Bolt improved his 100m meeting record to 9.76, then last year successfully defended his title with a 9.86 clocking. Bolt will not be the only big name in Brussels on 6 September. Three weeks after the IAAF World Championships in Moscow, the Belgian capital will again welcome many of the newly-crowned world champions […]
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Donovan Ricketts remembers the summer of 1998 well: “People ask me about France ’98, ask me to make comparisons to that team in every interview I do,” the veteran goalkeeper told FIFA.com with a kindly laugh, recalling Jamaica’s first and only trip to a FIFA World Cup. “It was a long time ago, and I was very young.” Ricketts’ teammates in the current Jamaica team watched the ‘98 Boyz huddled around TVs in their neighbourhoods, playing and carrying on with their friends in the streets. They were just boys and they dreamed recklessly of being the ones on those screens someday. But Ricketts was there in the flesh, a 20-year-old back-up goalkeeper soaking it all in from the bench. “The experience was crazy,” said Ricketts, now with Major League Soccer’s Portland Timbers. “It meant so much to Jamaica and to me.” “That team from ’98 was a better team than now,” added Ricketts, now 35, vice captain, and approaching a century of caps. “Most of us were playing our club football in Jamaica, so we were together in camp day in and day out,” he said of that 1998 side, coached by Brazilian Rene Simoes, that captured the world’s attention. […]
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