FILE
National Under-17 coach, David Hunt.

Carl Spence, Gleaner Writer

THE NATIONAL Under-17 football team departed the island yesterday to represent the country in the Caribbean Football Union's (CFU) Youth Cup which will be hosted in Trinidad and Tobago between August 14-26.

The tournament, which doubles as a Caribbean preliminary qualifier for the CONCACAF Under-17 final round to be played in April next year, will see 23 Caribbean teams competing with guest teams Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico and Panama in seven zones comprising four teams each.

Jamaica, who are the defending CFU champions after finishing third in last year's tournament and the highest-ranked among the Caribbean teams, will be playing in Group F along with Cuba, the Bahamas and Dominica on August 15, 17 and 19, respectively.

Ja expected to better placing

In last year's tournament, Jamaica were beaten 4-2 in the semi-finals by the competition's eventual winners, Canada, and are expected to better their placing this year, according to coach David Hunt who thinks the competition will be intense.

"I see this year's competition as a more intense one because more CONCACAF teams are taking part and because the competition is also a qualifier for CONCACAF final round," Hunt said.

"I will be disappointed if the team does not make it to the semi-finals, but we are looking to do better than the third-place finish we had last year," he added.

The players making the trip are Adrian Christian, Christopher Banner, Shavor Brown, Kenniel Hyde, Akeem Brown, Damaine Thompson, Sean Fogah, Marlon Abraham, Allan Sylvester, Dever Orgill, Oniel Wilson, Marvin Boothe, Andre Steele, Jermaine Jarrett (captain), Romario Campbell, Peter Beckford, Andray Beckford, Andre Blake, John-Ross Doyley and Kabari Palmer.

Hunt will be assited by Donovan Duckie while Raymond Grant will travel as the team's head of delegation with Michael Blair as team manager.