prepare for the World Cup and Olympic qualifiers and everyone is looking forward to it.

It's not just the players who are excited about it, we the coaches are as well, because it gives us a chance to get together in a nice environment and spell out exactly what we want from the players.

I am sure this will help some players to stake claims for a World Cup place if they impress in the games and in training.

We will be leaving for the British Virgin Islands for our first World Cup qualifier just a few days after we return from Florida, so this tour will serve as excellent preparation.

It's something we need to be doing. Exposure is the best teacher. We can't stay home and play against ourselves to prepare for the World Cup. In order to get better, we have to play against people better than us -- and that's something we have to try and keep doing.

I feel we are getting there slowly, not as fast as some people would like I'm sure, but these things take time to achieve. Getting players fit, sharp and ready is our main objective. We will be getting up early in the mornings and going for a run to help with the fitness.

Judging by the attitude I've seen from them in training so far, they are a bunch of decent guys and I don't think they'll have any problem with dealing with our tough schedule.

We will be doing most of our training at Altimonte Springs, an excellent facility which we enjoyed when we last went to Orlando with the under-23s in December. And we will also be spending time at the University of Central Florida.

I managed to see some Gold Cup matches on television over the weekend and I thought the teams from our region, particularly Jamaica, acquitted themselves very well.

And in the English Premier League, it was good to see that West Ham still hold true to the values they held dear when I played there. `We try to entertain' is the club's motto and you can't get much more entertaining than their 5-4 victory against Bradford. Four goals is a lot to give away, but it doesn't matter when you still manage to win and it's great for the fans to see nine goals.