By Nodley Wright, Staff ReporterSUNDAY'S WIN over Barbados in a friendly international will give Jamaica the proper platform from which to enter today's game against St Lucia in Group A of the Concacaf Gold Cup qualifiers at the National Stadium.
The Jamaicans, who just managed a draw and a three losses from four previous games this year, will meet the Eastern Caribbean team in the second game of the doubleheader at 7:00 p.m. In the opening game at 5:00 p.m., the French-speaking islands Haiti and Martinique will go head to head.
The winning team from this group and Group B will advance automatically to the Gold Cup in the United States and Mexico from July 12-27 while the second-placed teams will enter a three-team play-off among themselves and Honduras to determine the final qualifiers. Twelve teams are down to take part with hosts United States and Mexico as well as guest teams Brazil and Colombia already booked.
"I believe Sunday's game will bring the confidence of the players up," said Jamaica's technical director, Carl Brown, ahead of today's game. "You saw the mood in the training. It's all because they won ... it's something you want going into a tournament to get a good start," he continued.
For Brown a victory in this evening's game will be of even more importance for the further raising of the confidence level of the team for the remaining two games. While looking for a victory, he cannot afford to look past opponents they beat 3-1 when they last met.
According to St. Lucia coach Kingsley Armstrong, his team has always done well against Jamaica.
"First of all I know it's a very tough group (Jamaica, Haiti and Martinique) ... these are teams with a rich tradition in Caribbean football," said Armstrong.
"We're considered the underdogs, the minnows, but I'm confident in my team. On our day we can give any of the top teams a struggle," continued Armstrong.
To give his team a flying start, Armstrong will be looking to the trio of captain Earl Jean, Elijah Joseph and Titus Elva, who represent W. Connection in the Trinidad and Tobago semi-professional league. Jamaica will be looking to players who play further overseas to give them an added lift.
Among those players, who did not take part in Sunday's game, are forwards Kevin Lisbie and Deon Burton and midfielder Jermaine Johnson out of the United Kingdom. Craig Ziadie and Tyrone Marshall, who play in the United States, have also come in.
Jamaica will be without Ricardo Gardner who pulled up injured in a game for Bolton Wanderers on Monday while there is still some doubt about the availability of Jamie Lawrence. Lawrence, who trained with the team yesterday and was expected to start, could be heading back to England to sign a contract for a new club.
The ever-optimistic Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) president Captain Horace Burrell is confident that something could be worked out for Lawrence to remain with the team.
"He is up for transfer and they want him to return to the UK to sign his new contract. I am in dialogue with his agent and have suggested that they send the contract here for him to sign and return by the express service," said Burrell who added that such a solution would take care of both the welfare of the player and country's football interest.
Teams: Jamaica - Donovan Ricketts, Gerald Neil, Shavar Thomas, Linval Dixon, Claude Davis, Andy Williams, Jamie Lawrence, Theodore Whitmore, Cornel Chin-Sue, Fabian Taylor and Kevin Lisbie.
St Lucia from - Kester Erysthee, Giovanni Deterville, Sledon Emmanuel, Junior Samuel, Faustus Tobie, Shawn Kirton, Tennyson Glasgow, Nigel James, David Flavius, Johnathon McVane, Alvin Xavier, Earl Jean (captain), Sheldon Mak, Elijah (vice-captain), Titus Elva, Valencius Joseph, Benna Walter and Jarvin Skeete.
