Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

Members of Peru's national football side arrive at Norman Manley International Airport yesterday for tonight's friendly clash with Jamaica at the National Stadium. - Junior Dowie / Staff Photographer

THEY DID a fairly good repair job at 'The Office' with a 2-1 win over Canada last time.

Now Jamaica's Reggae Boyz will get back down to business, looking to continue the major reconstruction exercise of their mashed-down image with another victory as they face-off against Peru in a friendly international at the site of their major successes - the National Stadium - this evening at 7:00.

Significantly, too, the match is the last in another of several spells for this country's most successful national senior coach, Carl Brown, whose interim role lasted for just over three months. Naturally, he wants to go out on a high and as several of these players owe their spot in the team to him, that additional motivation is certain to push them harder towards a triumph.

"I'd really like to go out on a winning note and, more importantly, I want the players to play well," Brown said. "Everything I do is for the players and I'd really love for this one to be a good one."

He has won two Caribbean Cup titles, in 1991 and 1998, and was also the assistant coach when the Boyz made their only World Cup Finals appearance - France '98 under Brazilian Rene Simoes.

Whopping losses

In recent times the team's performances have been dismal with whopping losses - 6-0 to England, 4-1 to Ghana and 5-0 to Australia - and that paved the way for this Brown stint.

An embarrassing first-round exit from the Digicel Caribbean Cup within the past two months is one stat he and the country could have done without as the nation's football basically bottomed out.

Last month's 2-1 win over Canada, somewhat of a revenge victory as the North Americans had won a first-leg tie 1-0, was seen as the first step in what is shaping up to be a long rebuilding process towards the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, aided by the acquisition of new coach Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, who arrived here yesterday.

The chief architect gets a first-hand look at the talent pool crowded with much of the nation's finest talent, most of whom play overseas in Europe and North America.

They include attackers Ricardo Fuller, who wore the captain's armband last time, passing genius Jermaine Hue, Luton Shelton, Jermaine Johnson, Jamal Campbell-Ryce, Khari Stephenson and Teofore Bennett, alongside defenders Tyrone Marshall, Shavar Thomas and goalie Donovan Ricketts.

With few exceptions, they recently arrived in Jamaica but Brown says that's not a problem because their conditioning is good.

"Most of the players have been active and participating in different leagues home and abroad so they should be in good, reasonable match condition so I'm not disappointed that I've not had them over a longer period," he said. Peru arrived here yesterday despite travelling since Sunday as they holed up in Panama where they trained up to Monday.

The South Americans are ranked 79th in the world haven't won in five matches this year, drawing 1-1 against Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago, while losing to Chile twice - 3-2 and 1-0 in their last game, and 2-0 to Panama.

Jamaica's team will be without two players originally slated to come, Claude Davis and Jason Euell and likewise, the Peruvians will miss a top baller, silky Bayern Munich striker Claudio Pizarro who has vowed not to play under coach Francoi Navarro.

In Ivan Vargas (Catania, Italy), Jefferson Farfan (P.S.V. Eindhoven, Netherlands) and Martin Hidalgo (Internacional, Brazil) though, they possess high quality players who are certain to complement the homegrown talent that is always good coming from their region - underscored by the fact that they have been to the World Cup Finals on four occasions - thrice between 1970 and '82 with the legendary Teofilo Cubillas.

They are also in a rebuilding stage, with young players looking to make their mark. "We have young players, who are playing their first match but we're ok," said trainer Martin Bressan, the person on Peru's coaching panel who speaks the best English.

"The games are important because you can see the performance of the players to choose them for the next match. We need to see the players. We have five more players in Europe playing but they can't come," he said. "We finished the tactical work today to fine tune the team.We are forming a team, we are in a transition time like Jamaica."