Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

JAMAICA'S REGGAE Boyz are expected to go for their big guns when the team travels to face Colombia in an international friendly next month.

While final negotiations are still ongoing, the outing booked for the September 12 FIFA international match date will be the first for the national team since its unsuccessful tour of Asia in June. On that occasion Jamaica, made up entirely of a local-based players, suffered a number of embarrassing losses to teams ranked well below them.

String of defeats

The string of defeats included a 2-1 loss to Indonesia, a 3-0 defeat to Vietnam and then a bitter 8-1 demolition at the hands of then 46th ranked Iran. Following the tour, the team plummeted a shocking 25 points to 93rd in the FIFA rankings. Jamaica then fell two more spots in this month's latest edition.

However, with Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Crenston Boxhill announcing that the experimentation period was officially over after the tour of Asia, if word coming from the JFF is correct, don't expect the same sort of team to be lining up for the South American friendly.

Sources indicate that Jamaican internationals Damion Stewart of Queen's Park Rangers, Luton Shelton (Sheffield United), Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Southend), Claude Davis (Derby County) and captain Ricardo Gardner (Bolton) are all expected to be among those called up for an A-string Reggae Boyz squad subject, of course, to their availability. Midfielder Gardner and central defender Davis are questionable due to recent injuries.

With the CONCACAF World Cup qualification to get under way during the first quarter of next year, the encounter is expected to give national technical director Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, who earlier listed his primary objective as building a strong local-based squad, his first shot at having first-choice players at his disposal.

A few of the country's top players expected to be named for the Colombia friendly have not been in action for Jamaica for nearly two years, not having represented island since the unsuccessful 2006 summer tour of England which saw the team beaten 4-1 by Ghana and then pounded 6-0 by eventual 2006 World Cup quarter-finalists England.