Jamaica’s under-17 Reggae Boyz will go for their second win from as many games in Group G of the Concacaf U17 men’s World Cup qualifiers in Costa Rica when they play the Cayman Islands at the Costa Rica Football Federation field, starting at noon.
The Jamaicans and Canada share the lead in the group with identical statistics of three points and three goals after both won their opening games 3-0.
Jamaica’s coach, Wendell Downswell, gave his team an eight and a half out of 10 for the first match against Aruba, and he is hoping to get as many goals as possible against Cayman to put the impressive Canadians, who play Aruba, under pressure.
“The fact that we scored three goals and had a cleansheet and in terms of team organisation out of 10, I would give them eight and a half.
“Overall, we are pretty satisfied with the result we have gotten. It’s for us to press home the advantage in this game. It’s important we get these three points and possibly get some goals to put the Canada team under pressure.”
Cayman go into the match as underdogs, but Downswell is not taking them lightly.
“They might not appear to be that strong, but when teams are up against Jamaica, they are highly motivated. So we hope for a very positive result, and we are looking forward to scoring some goals and getting the three points and then look forward to the game against Canada, which will be the showdown,” he continued.
He added that the main concern is getting the players to keep their composure in front of goal, and he expects improvements in that regard in this match.
“There are little areas we have to work on and some individual players, but we had a very good session [yesterday], with crosses and finishing. We weren’t as clinical as we should have been in and around the 18-yard box. So we did some work this morning as it relates to that, and we hope to see improvements in their level of composure in terms of finishing,” he said.
In the team’s two meetings at this level, Jamaica have won twice, scoring 15 goals and conceding four.
In 2012, Jamaica demolished their regional neighbours 10-1. However, their most recent meeting last August was a much closer affair, with Jamaica winning 5-3.
In the first match on Friday, goals from Kelvin D Brown (45th+5), Justin Hayles (82nd minute), and Jahmarie Nolan (90th+3) saw Downswell’s team to victory.
