Barrett recalls Ja v Argentina ’98
MAR DEL PLATA, Argentina — On June 21, 1998 at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris, France, Reggae Boyz captain Warren Barrett had the embarrassing task of retrieving the ball out of his net on no less than five times in a World Cup Finals game against the mighty Argentina.
With the the 2010 Boyz scheduled to take the field against their Argentine counterparts at the Jose Maria Minella Stadium in a friendly late last night, Barrett — five months short of his 40th birthday — was hoping none of his young goalkeepers would suffer that indignity.
“I’ve been telling my goalkeepers just to be on the alert and even at the training session yesterday (Monday), we mentioned the fact that they (Argentina) are a team that loves to go to the touchline and goal line and play the ball back between the six-yard and penalty spot, so that’s one of the areas we’ve been concentrating on,” said Barrett, now the goalkeeping coach for the national programme.
He said the team would be focussing on “close marking and what I do know is that if Palermo (Martin) plays, then we can expect a lot of crosses because I saw highlights of the game when they beat Ghana last year 2-0 and he scored two headers, and that’s something that we have to be wary of… and it is something that we have to pass on to the team as well”.
In that World Cup game against Argentina, coached by the South American’s 1978 winning captain Daniel Passarella, who is now president of the River Plate football club, the magical Ariel Ortega hit a brace in the 32nd and 55th minutes, while the dangerous goal-getter Gabriel Batistuta bagged a second-half hat-trick in the 72nd, 79th and 83rd (penalty).
Barrett recounts the Reggae Boyz’s preparation leading up to that game.
“We had some problems within the team, so preparation wasn’t as smooth as we would have liked, but we were pretty confident.
“We lost 3-1 to Croatia; the players were in high spirits. We wanted to do well because our thoughts were that we could still qualify for the next round if we at least got a point from Argentina and beat Japan.
“And we saw that in the performance. We had a very creditable first half, but I thought we lost the game when we lost Darryl Powell to a red card, because we went in 0-1 down and in the second half it was just too big a hole to fill.
“Argentina at that time was one of the top five teams in the world and experience-wise they were far ahead of us and it showed during the second 45 minutes.
“We tried our best, but at the end of the day we lost 5-0, but that’s how football goes some of the times.”
The energetic Powell was introduced in midfield by then technical director Rene Simoes, but the bold move backfired after only four minutes when the England-based player was booked, and then another silly booking on 45 minutes condemned the Jamaicans to 10 players.
But having the best seat in the house, at the back of the team, Barrett couldn’t help but admire the silky skills and ball movement of the two-time World Cup winners.
“Their off-the-ball movement and passing were their key ingredients… The level of understanding that was in the team, the co-ordination, I think they were excellent…
“Ortega and Batistuta were on top of their game… they basically had their game plan and we nullified them throughout the first half, but in the second half, with 10 players, they got more space and were able to make use of the fact that they had one player more than us, and it showed in the end,” recalled Barrett.
He is upbeat about the qualities in the two goalkeepers here — Dwayne Miller of Harbour View and DuWayne Kerr of Portmore United.
“Our keepers have been pretty confident… since last year and as I have said, we have two excellent young goalkeepers here,” said the Montego Bay native.