MIAMI, Florida – Paul Hall is in his first few weeks at the helm of the Jamaican National Team, but there is already a sense of urgency being felt ahead of the upcoming window of Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers for Qatar 2022.
Currently sixth in the eight-team table with seven points and seven behind fourth-place Panama for the Intercontinental Playoff spot, Hall knows that the January/February slate of Mexico at home, Panama away and Costa Rica at home can be the springboard for a late Jamaica push.
“We’ve got three games in the space of a week, so we are going to be knowledgeable about what we need to do. The players know what they need to do. I feel like we’ll have that push to go and beat a team like Mexico and then travel to Panama and play a team like Costa Rica,” said Hall in an exclusive interview with Concacaf.com.
“The best thing is that we’ve got four games out of six at home and we’ll know where we are after the first three. If we want to make a move, we’ve got to make a move right now and we’ve got to make sure we approach the game like we want to win the game,” added Hall.
After serving as an assistant under former Head Coach Theodore Whitmore, Hall replaced Whitmore following the November WCQ window. The two men have a long history together, both playing on Jamaica’s lone FIFA World Cup Team at France 1998. Fortunately, the transition from Whitmore to Hall has been positive.
“It’s been good. The players are all on board. They understand that if you were going to make a decision to replace the head coach, then replace him with somebody that they already knew so there can be some sort of continuity. I’ve been to the World Cup with Theodore; we have been around the world together and so it was a tough decision to accept the job just because of our friendship. But I think the social fabric that is football for Jamaicans means this situation is bigger than both of us and we have to be mature enough to say, ‘Let’s see if we can qualify the team as best we can,” said Hall.
On a personal level, the chance to guide Jamaica is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the former attacker who made 48 appearances with the Reggae Boyz.
“It’s an opportunity that not everybody gets, so I have to take it with both hands and really enjoy it for what it is because it is an opportunity of a lifetime. It is a massive honor; a privilege and I hope to be helping and leading all those around me to great things,” said Hall.
Hall, who will continue to coach the Under-23 side at English club QPR in addition to his Jamaica duties, plans to have a two-pronged approach. There is the immediate need to try to qualify Jamaica for Qatar 2022, but there is also the goal of molding Jamaica over the long-term, with the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League, 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup and WCQ for USA/Mexico/Canada 2026 all in mind.
“Even if you fail, you still have to keep that long-term vision going because there are some young, fantastic players in Jamaica and they will get older and they will mature. There is that succession planning and we have to make sure that we not only think about the short term, but that it’s a bigger approach in trying to improve not only the players, but the coaching on the island, the women’s team, the women’s coaches and all the other practitioners,” said Hall.
One player in particular that can aid Hall in his short-term WCQ objective is winger Leon Bailey. The quality of the West Ham United man is undeniable, but he has only been able to appear in two of Jamaica’s eight matches thus far in the Final Round of WCQ. Hall knows that if he can unlock Bailey, the sky is the limit for the Caribbean side.
“I was a player who played in his position for a lot of my career. The best way for me to produce outcomes was to keep giving me the ball. I was always taught that if you get the ball 10 times and you mess up nine times, but then you go past the fullback, whip the ball in, the center forward heads it in and you win the game, people are only going to remember that 10th time. He’s got some great coaches in England. Hopefully he does report with us, comes back a better player and we can give him a platform to be able to perform well,” said Hall.
However, it is evident that the legacy that Hall would like to leave is to establish a style of play that embodies the Jamaican people and brings them to their feet.
“The Jamaica fans love to get up off their seats. They love to see their players win 1v1s, they love to see tricks and flamboyant football being played. That’s what we have to encourage the players to do. This starts with the 10-year-olds, and that’s a 10-year journey in which the 10-year-olds are encouraged to do that by the young coaches.
“It is going to take a long time to do it and sometimes it might be painful, like conceding silly goals or you might lose the ball by doing a stepover in the middle of the park or trying to nutmeg somebody. But these are the things we have to balance and we have to make sure the players understand that they are entertainers and the fans want to be entertained. Hopefully, with the young ones coming up, we can get them into that mindset,” concluded Hall.
