Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

Alfredo Montesso - levaughn flynn

REMINISCING on events of the past and present, the right hand man on Rene Simoes' coaching team of Brazilians, Alfredo Montesso, expressed surprise at their sacking but remained hopeful Jamaica would advance in the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying series.

"I didn't expect that we'd be leaving at this time," noted Montesso of the decision to fire Simoes, other members of the Brazilian coaching staff and himself, by Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president, Captain Horace Burrell.

Burrell sacked the team after the country went down 0-2 to Honduras last Wednesday in the Central American country.

"Everything in life changes," said Montesso, who generally conducts the majority of the drills at the Reggae Boyz training sessions.

"I remember we had a very hard time to qualify in 1996-97 ... in the finals we were the last team," Montesso noted of the 1998 campaign when Jamaica were holed up at the bottom of the six-team CONCACAF standings, but recovered to finish third and claim one of the automatic qualifying spots for France '98.

"But today (there) is a different approach, today (there) is a different mentality," he continued.

"If this change is to have the expectation to qualify the team, this is football, we've to accept," he reasoned of Burrell's decision. "We've to hope that Jamaica can get through."

Football is about results

Extending his psychological evaluation, Montesso said: "Really, I like to take the approach everytime as a professional. Football is about results.

"The decision has to be taken as we took the decision to come to Jamaica after winning the championship in Brazil.

"The people in Brazil didn't think it was a good decision, after we won the championship we got more exposure," he noted, pointing to their success with division two team Coritiba last season, which meant automatic qualification to its premier competition.

The quality is here

"But I think we did the right thing because the quality is here," he noted of them transferring to Jamaica. "The young generation, the under 20s, was one of the best teams that we see in Jamaica. They'll be good for the programme in a month and a half."

Other members of Simoes' five-member staff included goalkeeper coach Chico Santos, who was also in Honduras at the time the coaches were fired, along with Walter Gama and his son, Luciano, who were in Jamaica at the time heading the youth programmes and women's teams' coaching staff, respectively.

Meanwhile, Burrell yesterday hailed Simoes and his Brazilian staff for their contribution to the nation's football.