Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor

Marlon King ...could wear the captain's armband tonight in the absence of Ricardo Gardner. - File

JAMAICA'S REGGAE Boyz and Trinidad and Tobago's Soca Warriors will add another chapter to their age-old battle in a friendly international encounter at the National Stadium tonight at 7:00.

In somewhat ironic circumstances, Jamaica's football technical director, René Simoes, has recalled a popular striker to the squad, this time English Championship Division team Sheffield Wednesday's forward Deon Burton.

The Brazilian, who returned for his second tour of duty on January 5, had given Burton his debut while coaching Jamaica to their historic World Cup qualification at France '98. Burton scored four crucial goals in the elimination series that proved decisive in Jamaica's successful advance. Burton last donned the green, gold and black in an unforgettable June 2006 6-0 battering by England.

"It has been a long time since I have been called into the Jamaican squad but I always saw myself playing for Jamaica again," Burton, who scored in back-to-back matches recently, said in a Sunday Gleaner interview.

Long exile

For the last game against Costa Rica on February 6, which ended 0-0, Marlon King, who scored six goals in the '06 campaign, was selected after a long exile - given a reprieve by the new administration which cut a two-year ban.

While Burton is happy now, others are grieving and both teams will be missing influential players, with injury ruling out Jamaica captain Ricardo 'Bibi' Gardner and what appears to be another of those commonplace club vs country rows denying Trinidad and Tobago the Sunderland duo of Kenwyne Jones and Carlos Edwards. The latter had been sidelined for some time because of a broken foot.

The match among the Caribbean archrivals is the first of a two-way tie (June 6 return-leg in Trinidad) and serves to enhance their build-ups for the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, which they will kick off in mid-June. It also gives the fairly new top brass of the coaching staff another chance to assess talent.

Home-based players

Inherently, that provides another opportunity for such talents to press claims for the real thing at mid-year and Trinidad and Tobago, whose new Colombian coach, Francisco Maturana, will be in charge for his second international game, has included a number of home-based players for this trial.

Their task will be made more difficult by the intensity that is associated with matches - or any form of confrontation whatsoever - in this long-standing rivalry. There is a tremendous amount of pride at stake and, intrinsically, bragging rights.

"The game is very important because it is against Trinidad," noted Simoes, who also coached the Trinidadians, in reference to the fact that the teams are always highly motivated to play each other.

"We have to play very serious and we know from my experience here they are looking very serious for this game," the Brazilian added.

Of the previous 30 meetings between the two, the Jamaicans hold a 13-11 winning advantage and, even more distinctly, have either won or drawn all the matches they have played in this country.

Jamaica, too, won their last meeting, 2-1 in the Digicel Caribbean Cup tournament in February, 2005.

Simoes says either Toronto F.C.'s defensive player, Tyrone Marshall, or King of English Premiership club Wigan Athletic, will wear the armband in Gardner's absence.

King scored Saturday, a penalty in a 3-1 loss at Blackburn Rovers.

Jamaica's other overseas-based players are Donovan Ricketts (Bradford City), Demar Phillips (Stoke City), Luton Shelton (Sheffield United), Omar Daley (Bradford City), Ian Goodison (Tranmere Rovers), Demar Stewart (Royal White Star, Belgium), Jamal Campbell-Ryce (Barnsley), Oneil Thompson (Nottoden, Norway) and Khari Stephenson (AIK Stockholm, Sweden).

The Soca Warriors' overseas cast is represented by forward Darryl Roberts (Sparta Rotterdam), Collin Samuel (Toronto FC) and United States-based defender Osei Telesford.

Maturana's first win

They are coming off a win, having beaten El Salvador 1-0 in their game last Wednesday, through a free kick 12 minutes into the second half by midfielder Keon Daniel.

The victory represented the first for Maturana, who first handled the team in an international in a goalless draw at Guadeloupe.

"The team is a mixture of what we had in the last game and then we have the overseas players coming in," Maturana was quoted as saying after last week's victory. "It's a good chance to see how well they can play together against a team like Jamaica who are very good at home."

He added: "I was pleased with the effort against El Salvador and I hope that we can do even better against the Jamaican team. It's an important game for our preparations and we will try to prepare well and take everything with us into the game."