Reggae Boyz hunt semi berth

Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sport

SAINTE-LUCE, Martinique:

JAMAICA'S Reggae Boyz are expected to face a desperate and determined challenge from Guadeloupe's 'Guada Boys' when both teams clash in the feature encounter of a Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals double-header, at the Riviere Pilote Stadium tonight at 8:30 (7:30 Jamaica time).

The Jamaicans, who are the defending champions, head the four-team group on three points after grinding out a 3-1 win over Antigua and Barbuda, in their first match of the round-robin Group I play-offs on Saturday night. Luton Shelton (14th, 37th) and Dane Richards (40th), scored for Jamaica.

Guadeloupe, on the other hand, are tied for second with Guyana, on one point each, after both finished 1-1 in their match. Antigua and Barbuda are without a point after their defeat.

A victory tonight would launch Jamaica to six points and into the semi-finals of the championship, as well as Gold Cup qualification, as the top two teams from the group are guaranteed qualification to CONCACAF's flagship tournament.

Two other Gold Cup qualifiers will advance from this tournament, both from Group H which involves Cuba, Grenada, Martinique and Trinidad and Tobago.

The last time Jamaica faced Guadeloupe, the Reggae Boyz won 2-0, in the semi-finals of the last Digicel Caribbean Cup, at the National Stadium in Kingston in 2008.

Guadeloupe's main goal in this tournament is to qualify for the Gold Cup and while a loss would not eliminate their chances, a win would open the door wider, ahead of their final round schedule against Antigua and Barbuda.

The latter will face Guyana in this evening's opening game, set to kick-off at 6.

After getting a look at each other on Saturday, neither team was willing to boldly declare how they weighed up their chances.

"This is football and you never can tell what might happen. We don't want to look on what we've seen from the Guadeloupe-Guyana match earlier," said Theodore Whitmore, head coach of the Jamaica team.

"There are bits and pieces that we can take from that game that can help us, but it's going to be a hard, tough game," he pointed out. "They drew their game, we've won so they'll be coming hard, we just have to know how we'll approach the second game to get something out of it."

Captain Shavar Thomas, also took some tips from Guadeloupe's performance against Guyana.

Thomas said: "They're a good side and we liked what we saw about them, we're going to go to our training and decide how we're going to go against them."

Good technique

The Guadeloupe team, displaying good technique and skill, was quite strong and fluid for much of the first half, as they carved out openings with alarming regularity against a very disorganised Guyana defence in the first half.

However, they are expected to face a much tougher task against the Jamaican defence as Thomas, Jermaine Taylor and Adrian Reid, along with Richard Edwards, Rodolph Austin, Lovel Palmer and Shaun Francis, primarily, have better quality and experience and should be able to better cope with the off-the ball movements of their strikers, Niçoise and Nabab.

Additionally, the Reggae Boyz offence is loaded with weapons with Shelton, Richards and Keammar Daley, as well as Omar Cummings and Ryan Johnson who did not play on Saturday, capable of destroying defences.

Despite the challenge facing his team, Stephane Auvray, captain of the Guada Boys, remained clear on the direction they want to take.

"We're looking at our team before we look at the Jamaica team. Because we didn't win the first game we only have one point so we must have a good result against Jamaica," said Auvray, who is a teammate of the Jamaica captain, Thomas, at Major League Soccer outfit Kansas City Wizards.

Winning possibilities

Continuing, Auvray, while assessing their winning possibilities, said: "You never know before the game starts; we have a chance for sure because we've played two Gold Cup semi-finals, quarter-finals, we've players coming from Europe, so we could win the game."

The Guadeloupe team was very wayward in its shooting against Guyana, with Livio Nabab and Mickael Niçoise wasting more than eight quality chances to score from inside the penalty box, when they were unchallenged, until Loic Loval scored the goal that gave them the lead.

Auvray had no hesitation noting which area of their play they need to improve to win against Jamaica.

"Without question it's the forwards, we need to score goals," the dreadlocked midfielder who pulls the strings for his team, said. "We had like 10 opportunities and we scored only one goal, so we've to improve on the efficiency."