So who is this man pretending to be a seal? It is none other than Liverpool legend John Barnes, who has just been hired to take over as manager of the Jamaican national team.
Barnes takes over for fired head coach Rene Simoes, who presided over a pair of World Cup qualifying losses to Mexico and Honduras last week. Former Jamaican national team standout Theodore Whitmore will serve as interim coach for the team’s upcoming qualifiers in October, but Barnes will take over in November.
Born and raised in Jamaica before moving to England in his teens, Barnes starred for Liverpool as well as the England national team. His coaching resume consists of one unsuccessful year in charge of Glasgow Celtic.
Jamaica is currently in a tie for third place in its World Cup qualifying group with Canada. Both teams have one point and are five points back of Honduras for second place in CONCACAF Group B. Mexico leads the group with nine points.
Colombia fires Pinto
What a difference a month makes. Colombia entered September unbeaten in World Cup qualifying and looking like a strong candidate to make a run at a 2010 World Cup berth. Two losses later, the Colombian national team is one spot out of qualifying range and introducing a new coach.
Colombia fired head coach Jorge Luis Pinto on Tuesday, appointing former youth team coach Eduardo Lara as his replacement.
Colombia recently suffered a pair of shutout losses, 1-0 to Uruguay and an embarrassing 4-0 drubbing against Chile, to drop out of the qualifying zone. The top four teams in CONMEBOL qualify for the World Cup, with the fifth-place team playing the fourth-place team from CONCACAF for another spot. Colombia is currently in sixth place in CONMEBOL qualifying.
Ferguson irate over lifting of Terry suspension
As you probably expected, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is not too happy that Chelsea captain John Terry had a red card and three-match suspension overturned ahead of Chelsea’s clash against Manchester United this weekend.
Manchester United will be without star defender Nemanja Vidic, who drew two yellow cards in the team’s 2-1 loss to Liverpool on Saturday.
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