Midfielder Keith Kelly buckles under a challenge from a teammate during training last night at the Harbour View Mini-Stadium. - Dennis Coke JAMAICA begin their journey to the 2001 World Youth Cup in Argentina this evening when they meet the Cayman Islands in the second game of a Caribbean Zone doubleheader at the Harbour View Mini-Stadium.
The game kicks off at 7:00 p.m. and will be preceded by a 5:00 p.m. game between Grenada and Dominica, the other teams in the regional qualifying zone.
The locals should start favourites as not only do they have home advantage but in their squad are a number of experienced players who have trained with and/or represented the national team.
The players include national sweeper Shavar Thomas, midfielders Keith Kelly and Omar Daley as well as forwards Christopher Nicholas and Dwayne Richards. A number of squad members were also a part of the country's 1999 Under-17 World Cup team which qualified for the New Zealand tournament.
In addition to that, they have been preparing for this tournament for quite a while and recently returned from Brazil where they had a two-week training camp.
They had four practice games against their Brazilian counterparts and age group teams from Flamengo, Fluminense and Japan team. They won their match against the Japanese team but lost the others.
While the Jamaicans were busy preparing, their opponents were taking matters a little bit easier as they thought the tournament was to take place in two weeks time, according to Caymans coach Locksley Haylock.
Haylock said they were informed just last week the tournament had been pushed forward.
Despite the obvious disadvantage the Cayman Islands face, the Jamaican camp will not be taking them lightly as, according to technical director Clovis de Oliveira, there are no longer any weak teams in world football.
"We respect them and we are going to play as we did against the Brazilian national team," De Oliveira said.
"We know it is going to be very difficult (qualifying for Argentina) but we are going to focus on the present tournament and try to win every game with as many goals as possible. If we win by just 1-0 or 2-0 we will be happy to go on to the next phase," he said.
Haylock was less optimistic about his team's chances and indicated it would play a containing game.
Haylock's team could be lucky this evening as there are injury concerns over key midfielders Kelly (slight calf problem), Daley (knee) and forward Nicholas who has a chronic ankle problem. All three will know their fate today after tests by the medical team.
By Nodley Wright
Staff Reporter
