King: FIFA U-15 World Cup an eye-opening experience

Stefan King, head coach of Barbados’ FIFA U-15 World Cup team. (Photo by: Kurtis Hinds) Head coach of the Barbados team to the Fifa U-15 World Cup in Azerbaijan, Stefan King, says the skill level on display during the competition has highlighted the work that still needs to be done locally, to bring players up to par internationally. The tournament marks the first time a Barbados national team has competed at a Fifa World Cup. Speaking exclusively to Barbados TODAY from Baku, King said the 8×8 format of the competition had highlighted areas where Barbadian players need to improve technically. Barbados opened its campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Kuwait, followed by 7-0 losses to Tajikistan and Spain and an 8-0 defeat to Chile. Coach King says the level of competition and quality of play have been excellent. “You know, it’s been an unprecedented level of competition that Barbadian teams have never seen before and quite frankly, we’ve played the team that is ranked number one in the world (Spain) and the number 50 in the world (Chile) and all the other teams have just shown their quality and what they have to offer. You Might Be Interested In “So although the scores are high, the format of the game allows for that. It’s a small-sided field with big goals and we’ve tried to compete to the best of our ability. We expected some challenges, but we can see the difference in technical quality and the physicality. Some of these boys even at the age of Under 15, are approaching six feet tall in some cases. For us it’s been a tough experience on the field, but it hasn’t deterred our spirit at all,” King explained. The head coach says one of the key areas that will need to be addressed going forward, is improving the technical ability of Barbadian players. “You can never be tactical if you’re not technical. Speed of play has to improve for Barbadian players, speed of thought also has to improve, but a lot of these teams naturally play this format, whereas our boys, some of their strengths come from playing 11 v 11. “That is then not applicable in these matches because for some of our most athletic players, there’s no space to run into, so then the decisions that they make with and without the ball are quite different,” King added. According to the coach, having a bit more time to prepare for the World Cup would also have been helpful. Fifa President Gianni Infantino (back row, centre) with members of the Barbadian delegation. (Photo by: GI) “You know we pretty much put the team together and trained for six weeks and came and played the best players in the world. Having spoken with some of the other coaches, some of them have been preparing for close to a year, just because it’s kind of a year-long thing for some of these teams.” Despite the nature of the results so far, King says his players continue to push for excellence and are in good spirits. While adamant that he’s not looking for excuses, the coach says the night-time temperatures, which have reportedly been under 20 degrees Celsius in some cases, have also proved challenging for the team. With the first part of the competition now concluded, Barbados has been seeded in Tier F along with teams with similar results, with those games set to kick off on Wednesday. “So our tournament actually now begins in the sense that now that we have cemented our spot in Tier F along with the other 31 teams, now there’s five games towards being the champion of Tier F. “We have been drawn against our regional counterpart, Grenada, for Wednesday’s round of 32 match, and we’re now in a preparation phase with a more familiar opponent with similar challenges to Barbados,” King revealed. (KH)