Bora Milutinovic

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (CMC):

Jamaica's Under-23 footballers face a mighty task, having to beat homesters Haiti by a whopping four clear goals to advance from Group H in the final round Caribbean Football Union (C.F.U.) Olympic qualifying play-off series in Port-Au-Prince today.

The Bahamas registered a stunning 1-0 victory over Jamaica that virtually knocked the young Reggae Boyz, coached by Wendell Downswell, out of the Olympic qualifying race at the Silvio Cator Stadium Thursday night.

Only the group winners will go forward in the triangular series and in Tuesday's opening game, Haiti had thrashed the Bahamas 6-0.

Technical director of Jamaica's football, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, left Jamaica in time to join the team ahead of today's match. While his expertise will be welcome, it is the finishing that so deserted the team against Bahamas that will matter.

In Thursday's match, Lesly St. Fleur struck a late goal for the Bahamians to burn the Jamaicans who, with half of the squad coming from their Pan American Games silver medal-winning unit in Brazil this summer, peppered the Bahamians' defence frequently but failed to score.

Haiti-born St. Fleur hit the winning goal for the Bahamas in the 84th minute to leave Jamaica with the highly improbable task of defeating hosts Haiti by four clear goals - in the last group match today - to advance to the CONCACAF final round of qualifying.

shot unleashed

On a counter-attacking play, St. Fleur broke free down the right flank and after a resolute dribble into the box, unleashed a shot that beat Dwayne Kerr.

The Bahamians, outgunned by the home side two days earlier, got spirited support from the local fans and played with determination for their Brazilian coach Neider Dos Santos.

"We deserved to win, football is about scoring goals so we scored one and Jamaica scored nil,Ó he told reporters.

Elsewhere, Cuba secured their spot in the CONCACAF play-offs when they beat Grenada 2-1 in Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday evening to secure Group G honours.

The group winners will advance to the CONCACAF Men's Under-23 Champion-ship along with three Central American teams, plus Canada, Mexico and USA with venue and dates to be announced.

The CONCACAF Under-23 Championship will qualify two teams to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.