Sport

Impressive Addlery

By AINSLEY WALTERS, Staff Reporter

Nicholas Addlery - File

STRIKER NICHOLAS ADD-LERY appears to have regained the confidence of Jamaica's coaching staff following what technical director Carl Brown last night described as an "impressive" Under-23 debut against Martinique's national senior team Wednesday.

Addlery, who last represented Jamaica during the World Youth Cup qualifiers in 2001 but faded out of favour after failing to find the back of the net in two games, blasted in the Under-23s' lone goal against Martinique, winning tons of admiration from Brown.

Impressive

"He was impressive, had a lot of power and was physical, very, very strong," a convinced-sounding Brown told STAR Sports last night, indicating the 22-year-old has forced his way into the junior Boyz' plans for CONCACAF's final round of Olympic qualifiers set for February 2-12 in Guada-lajara, Mexico.

"We believe he'll be a credit to the team," added Brown, complimenting Addlery, who plays professionally in Trinidad with Starworld Strikers, where he scored six goals in his first six matches after joining the side last October.

Although not wanting to show his cards too early, Brown all but said Addlery could have forced his way into the starting line-up for Mexico especially with the country's top junior striker, Christopher Nicholas, being plagued by a long-standing ankle injury.

"We still have a couple of weeks to go but he definitely impressed and didn't do his chances of leading the attack any harm based on what we've seen of him," he said.

After failing to win a place on Jamaica's team to the World Youth Cup in Argentina, Addlery returned to the California University of Pennsylvania, where he turned around his goalscoring form, becoming a leading scorer in the Inter-University Soccer Tournament.

The former Jamaica College Manning Cup player caught the attention of the Jamaican coaching staff recently after a STAR Sports exclusive highlighted his exploits in Trinidad, where his coach, Ashmead Ali, described him as "the best striker in the Pro League".

The Boyz' match against Martinique was the second Eastern Caribbean senior opposition they were facing in four days after drawing 2-2 with Guadeloupe Saturday.

Jamaica led twice against Guadeloupe through goals from Roland Dean and Fabian Dawkins but were pegged back 2-1 then held 2-2 off a late second-half goal.

Brown said the opposition on tour has been of good quality with Martinique fielding six members of the senior team which drew 2-2 with Jamaica at the National Stadium in Gold Cup qualifying action in March of last year.

The Boyz return home today before flying out Saturday for Fort Lauderdale where they have two games lined-up, Sunday's senior encounter against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who are preparing for World Cup qualifying, as well as a friendly match-up with Canada's Under-23s next Tuesday.

Bad news

Meanwhile, the Under-23 coaching staff got a bit of bad news Tuesday when English Premiership team Charlton Athletic informed the Jamaica Football Federation that forward Jamal Campbell-Royce was injured and would be unavailable for the trip to Mexico next month.

Campbell-Royce excited as a substitute in Jamaica's 2-0 win over Guatamala in their first-leg second round Olympic qualifier at the stadium last November and was set to play a major role in the junior Boyz' push for Greece 2004.