Kaieteur Sport raps GFF TD Ian Greenwood on just concluded GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial National U15 c/ships

Feb 24, 2019 Sports

Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Technical Director Ian Greenwood and the federations Technical Department played a pivotal role in the just concluded GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson Memorial National U15 championship.
The department was tasked with the responsibility of scouting at the level of the Intra Association Leagues as well as the national playoffs with a view to spotting talented players and bringing them into the national fold.
Kaieteur Sport reached out to TD Greenwood to share his and the departments experience during this inaugural tournament which kicked off in 2017. FC Eagles of West Demerara emerged as the champions defeating Santos FC, Rising Stars and Tabatinga FC in the National Playoff Finals.
KS – Can you give us your perspective on conclusion of the GFF/Pele Alumni/Frank Watson U-15 tournament?
IG – The Guyana Football Federation and its Technical Department is overjoyed that we were able to execute the Nationwide Playoff for the U15 tournament. We are happy that a partner, the Pele Alumni, saw it fit to make such an investment in the development of the sport and positively influence the lives of hundreds of young men, young footballers throughout the country.
The tournament offered the entire football fraternity, the opportunity to witness and assess the next generation of players as they compete against each other on multiple grounds every Saturday and Sunday across the land. Our technical staff was given the platform to observe and identify the players they thought showed the greatest technical promise and hence document them into the pool of upcoming national, international and professional players.
The tournament offered important hours towards the player development clock, a clock that stood still for many of our young players because Regional Member Associations (RMA) did not offer the opportunity for the kids to play. The RMA’s faced significant challenges that they were unable to overcome, until the GFF/Frank Watson partnership materialised.
We are forever grateful to all parties that contributed to the successful inaugural year of this partnership and we are excited to get the second edition of this magnificent tournament executed across the nation.
KS – How was the department able to cope with following the tournament from the start to finish?
IG – Indeed, the task of coping with such a huge tournament presented many challenges. Administratively we struggled a lot with competencies in the initial stages due mainly to the implementation of a technical development structure that was new to most persons tasked with executing at the grassroots level.
The structure was challenged heavily but it persevered and had a successful completion of all the intra association rounds, the nationwide playoffs and finals. Our technical officers working within the RMA’s were able to contribute their competencies to the successful running of the tournament and even strengthened the regional academies they managed.
They were able to be at the match venues week after week, scouting, identifying and inviting talent for structured training in the Academy Training Centers and subsequent development of those players.
KS – What’s your impression on the level of play by the clubs that made it to the Nationwide Playoffs?
IG – I am of the opinion that the clubs that made it to the Nationwide Playoffs all looked the part. It was obvious that the level of play was better than what we saw at the regional level. This is expected given that the strongest teams would have won the regional tournaments.
From observation and the data gathered, the greater percentage of matches in the playoffs were keenly contested with and odd goal separating the teams. Overall play was good throughout and some of the matches came to very exciting conclusions.
Physically, technically and tactically a lot of the teams struggled but that can be attributed to the short preparation time that was given due to circumstances that influenced the schedule of when the playoffs could have been executed.
KS – How would you describe the playoffs from a talent perspective?
IG – The playoff served as a true test and benchmark for talent identification. The players were matched against top players from the other RMA’s and that brought about some challenges that they may not have otherwise faced at the intra association level.
This obviously allowed the top players to climb to the top of the group. The top players in the tournament are now in a position to challenge for places in the next national U15 and U17 teams.
KS – How many players have been identified for National Pool?
IG – We have identified approximately sixteen players, that have shown enough potential to be invited to natio

GFF TD Ian Greenwood (6th left), Golden Jaguars Head Coach Michael Johnson (4th right) and Pele Alumni’s John Yates (3rd right) take time out for a photo with members of the GFF Technical Department and staff of the various Academy Training Centers.

nal team training at different age groups. Of those identified by the members of the technical staff, approximately 70 percent (70%) have been previously scouted and invited to national team training.
KS – What improvements are you looking forward to in next intra association tournament?
IG – First up, we would love to see adherence to the national calendar of events. It is important that the programmes at the association get executed in accordance with the calendar in order to synchronize towards the fulfillment of the federation’s development plan.
General organisation of the match day experience for the players; The environment must be created to inspire players to give of their best in order to be successful. When the match day experience is great, the players and staff are inspired and this motivates them to be more committed to training and preparation and ultimately the development of the key stakeholders and overall national development.
A belief in the structure and a willingness to commit fully towards it; Persons appointed or selected to execute tournaments must be able to complete same with the highest level of commitment to guarantee success.
KS – Can you describe the level of work put in by the technical department?
IG – The technical staff must be applauded for the commitment shown throughout the tournament from its commencement to its conclusion. I must mention that the staff really stepped up at the National Playoffs and gathered interesting data from all of the matches in that stage of the tournament.
The data will now be used to inform many decisions going forward especially related to player assessment and technical analysis. Further, the technical department took the lead role in the execution of the playoffs and finals and gained tremendous experience in understanding how to make the necessary adjustments and implement strategies to improve the benefits and player experience geared towards development.