By Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport EditorTHE REGGAE BOYZ aim to make a statement for the national football programme when they tackle top South American team Uruguay in a friendly international at the National Stadium at 6:30 this evening.
The Jamaicans are on slippery ground and several reasons, both on and off the field, have contributed to their position.
A new administration, led by Crenston Boxhill, is running the country's football. It inherited a huge debt, just under $30 million, from the previous Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) administration led by Captain Horace Burrell. It is broke.
It needs money, lots of it, to clear its debts and run the national football programme.
The cause was not helped either with the recent failure of the national Under-23 football team to qualify for this summer's Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Even though this failure is not a creation of the current administration, it has strengthened a perception that its technical team, headed by Carl Brown, does not have the expertise to take the country's football to the highest level.
This is because Brown is a local coach and many Jamaicans, even some football coaches, have always believed one of their own cannot take the country to the World Cup final.
Brown's response was this: "People can say what they like, my job is on the field and that is all I'll focus on."
He has also brushed aside the Under-23 factor, querying: "Why do we people keep dwelling on the Under-23s? That is not the first time that we've lost three games in Olympic qualifiers.
"These are the seniors and we need to give them support."
The Reggae Boyz open their campaign in June against the winner of a clash between Haiti and the Netherland Antilles.
The Uruguayans, two-time World Cup winners, have already started their campaign in South America. They now hold an automatic qualifying position at fourth (only two points off leaders Paraguay) and will play Venezuela in a matter of weeks.
CLOSE TO THEIR STRONGEST LINE-UPS
Both countries have assembled close to their strongest line-ups, which include a host of players from top clubs in Europe.
For Jamaica there are goalie Donovan Ricketts, Claude Davis, Jermaine Johnson, Micah Hyde, Richard Langley, Ricardo Fuller, Onandi Lowe and Michael Johnson from the English leagues and United States MLS stars Andy Williams, Damani Ralph, Tyrone Marshall, Craig Ziadie and new addition Craig Tomlinson.
Most of them have been involved in Jamaica's preparation to this stage, including games against world champs Brazil, Australia and South Africa in Britain last year, and Nigeria late last year.
The results were decent and reflected the competitive state of the team, but they have not
consistently played good offensive team football as Ricardo Fuller has been left to shoulder too huge a burden in a one-man show.
The added presence of Onandi Lowe and the fact that the team is generally more expressive at home should serve to change their tactic towards accomplishing the game's most important task scoring.
Brown attested to that, saying: "If you look at the players we have here, they will want to go out and express themselves."
Winning should not be easy against this team of class, which came from two goals down at halftime to tie Brazil 3-3 in a Cup qualifying tie in Brazil recently.
They also have 12 European-based players, which also shows why they are only a point behind global giants Brazil and Argentina.
INCLUDED IN THEIR SQUAD
Included in their 18-member squad are Manchester United's Diego Forlan and Italy's Serie A stars, Marcelo Zalayeta (Perugia), Diego Lopez (Cagliari), Gianni Guigou (Siena) and Ernesto Xavier Chevanton (Lecce).
Another five represent clubs in Spain's La Liga in Gustavo Munua (Deportivo La Coruna), German Hernos (Sevilla), Martin Liguera (Mallorca), Fernanado Correa (Mallorca) and Ruben Oliveira (Atletico Madrid).
"This is a strong team and I'm sure they can do well," Uruguay's match agent, Alex Gutzman said.
"This will be a good opportunity for the Jamaican football team because they will have the opportunity to play against one of the top teams in the world with players from the best clubs in the world."
