Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

With Jamaica's young Reggae Boyz already branded favourites to easily advance to the next round from Group D of the CONCACAF U-20 championships, national Under-20 coach, Alfredo Montesso, has vowed to be wary of overconfidence heading into the tournament.

Scheduled to kick off in a little over a week in the Cayman Islands, the group has seen Jamaica placed alongside the hosts, Bermuda and Puerto Rico.

Only the top team from each group and the best second-place team will advance to the Caribbean final round, which begins in December.

Jamaica will have fresh memories of been bitten by the upset bug at this level before after being favourites to progress as it was just one year ago that an Under-23 team, coached by Wendell Downswell, was knocked out of its bid to qualify for the Olympics following losses to The Bahamas and hosts Haiti.

best team

"What we have been trying to put into the players' minds is that if you are thought to be the best team, you still have to go out there and show it," Montesso said.

"Each game is different, no matter how many games you have won before, nothing up until that point matters, this is the approach we have taken," he added.

The Brazilian is also pleased with the team's state of readiness up to this point. On Thursday, led by goals from Romario Campbell, LeVaughn Williams and St Georges Football Club's Under 21 player Romeo Parks, the young Boyz cruised to a 3-0 win over a Waterhouse team still in preseason training at the Drewsland Mini Stadium.

"I am satisfied with where we are at this point. The team has a lot of talent and their understanding of the game has improved," Montesso said.

"If we could have got some friendly internationals in, that would have been good, but we have faced high quality competition from some of these teams, so I think we are ready for this stage of the competition," he added.

A squad of 20, which will include both national senior squad invitees, Canadian-based Dever Orgill and Evan Taylor - a recent regular fixture in the national set-up - will leave the island next week for the Cayman Islands. Both players missed Thursday's game, Orgill was being rested after picking up a minor knock in a previous game, while Taylor was away from camp attending to family issues.

The Jamaicans will be looking to join Haiti, who have already qualified from Group A, St Vincent and the Grenadines, who won Group D and Antigua and Barbuda, who were Group E champions.