National winger Joevin Jones paid homage to his parents, father Kelvin Jones, a former national defender himself and his mother Merlin for the way they pushed him to become better at his game from a young boy coming up.
Jones, who is currently rated as one of the best left backs in American Major League Soccer, is looking ahead to the June 8 World Cup qualifier against the United States but while he may be a leading act at age 25, he has not forgotten what it was like growing up.
“She watched all of my games,’’ Jones said of his mother. “And if she didn’t like how I played, she would tell me straight up. I liked her for that. She’d tell me what I did wrong.
If I didn’t have a good game, she’d tell me she wasted her time coming to watch me. Again, I liked her for that. Every time I play, I think about her.’’
Of the relationship with his brothers Marvin and Alvin as well as father Kelvin, he said they would all try to polish things on the training field in Carenage after a match.
“We used to watch one another’s games and say where we went wrong.
What we needed to work on and stuff like that.
And then, the next day, we’d go out to a field and work on things,” he told the Seattle Times.
Jones is hoping to enter the European arena this year but wants to keep on making his name at the moment.
“I think I can make it into Europe but everything comes in good time. At the moment I have a lot to focus on at the club and also the World Cup qualifiers in June against the US and Costa Rica as these are two massive games for us,” Jones said.
Latapy seeing progress
“Listen, it’s not going to come overnight but we are doing something with our youth teams that from what I understand, hasn’t happened for some time.”
Those were the words of T&T Under-15 head coach Russell Latapy as he puts things into perspective as the head of the national Under-15 and U-17 team which is potentially the next U-18 team that will continue preparing for the Under-20 World Cup qualifiers for 2019.
Latapy has been overseeing the preparation of both teams for all of this year so far with sessions up to three days per week. Currently the U-15s are at the Cayman Airways Invitational, where they drew 2-2 with Manchester City on Monday, preparing for the CONCACAF U-15 Championship in August.
Latapy is also keeping tabs on the CONCACAF U-17 World Cup Qualifiers currently taking place in Panama as he foresees his current U-17s having to face similar teams in the next U-20 campaign.
•Shaun Fuentes is the communications manager for TTFA. shaunfuentes@yahoo.com