Young Reggae Boyz aim to beat Grenada

Jamaica's young Reggae Boyz bow into action today, as they take another step towards securing only their second appearance in the Under-20 World Cup.

The under-20 men's squad, which departed the island on Monday for Guyana to participate in the Caribbean Football Union under-20 second phase, preliminary group stage qualifying, will face what is expected to be their toughest challenge when they go up against Grenada at 5 p.m.

"We are pretty confident," Wendell Downswell, the team's head coach, told The Gleaner ahead of their departure. "I think that on tradition, Grenada should be our toughest opponent, along with the host team, Guyana, because they will have their home crowd behind them cheering them on."

He added: "I think all these teams are good teams and so we just have to make sure that we go out there and play hard to win.

"We have a very good all-round team because defensively we are quite solid and offensively we have some quality players, so I believe this is a well-balanced team," said Downswell.

The team included players with senior national team experience, St Georges defender Oneil Fisher and his schoolmate, midfielder Devon Williams.

They will look to goals from Allan Ottey, Neco Brett, Jhamie Hyde, Rohan Reid, Kevon Farquharson and Ackeemo Palmer.

Encounter

The Jamaicans will play their second game on Friday against the US Virgin Islands, when game time is also set for 5 p.m., before rounding out on Sunday against host country Guyana in a 7 p.m. encounter.

The winner of the group will qualify for the CONCACAF under-20 finals to be held April 3-17 next year in Guatemala. The top four teams that emerge from the final phase of qualifying will represent the region in the 2011 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, which is scheduled for Colombia.

Jamaica's only previous appearance in the Under-20 World Cup Finals was in the 2001 staging held in Argentina.