Speid credits defensive line for Cavalier resurgence
Published:Thursday | February 8, 2024 | 12:11 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
AFTER A somewhat pedestrian start to the 2023-24 Jamaica Premier League (JPL) season, former champions Cavalier are enjoying life atop the standings. Rudolph Speid, head coach of the team, said while his offensive line is a force to be reckoned with, the defensive unit has been instrumental to their surge to the top.
“We’re not too shabby at scoring goals, but I think that one of the main reasons why we’re now at the top is because our defence is now the best defence in the Premier League,” said Speid.
Speid sought to explain that having lost some of his offensive artillery to overseas transfers, he was very aware that it would prove difficult to replicate the goal-scoring prowess the team showed before the start of the league. Therefore, in a bid to remain competitive, Cavalier decided to refocus their efforts on the defensive end, which has proven to be a masterstroke.
“We were always one of the better defensive teams in the league as we’re always amongst the top five each season. We know that we’re good defensively, so this isn’t a one-off thing. Last season, we lost Ronaldo Webster, Colin Anderson, and Dwayne Atkinson, who recently returned. If you combine all of them, we lost about 40 goals, so we knew it would be difficult to replicate that number of goals, so we had to do something else, so we decided to be tighter at the back and use that as a springboard,” said Speid.
NINE GOALS
Cavalier, to date, in their 17 matches played, have only conceded a league-low nine goals, while over their last four games, their defensive line is yet to be breached. The last time Cavalier conceded was on January 10 against Humble Lion.
According to Speid, after starting the season leaking goals, he knew a change in plan was urgent.
“In the last 10 games, we’ve only conceded two goals, one of which was an own goal. We were 10th at one stage, but we were struggling to score goals, but as a team, if Plan A isn’t working, then you should go to Plan B. We started the season conceding a goal per match for the first seven games, so we opted to tighten that up because we weren’t scoring as frequently,” he added.
Part of Cavalier’s resurgence is the return to form of shot-stopper Jaedine White.
Speid believes with both White and Vino Barclett in top form, the confidence level in recent times has “skyrocketed”.
“It’s good that both goalkeepers are in form as they will give each other competition, and that is what we want. It’s a team effort at the back, and the confidence between the keepers and defence line has skyrocketed.”