PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — The Caribbean’s top two teams, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, renew their rivalry with the first of a two-game friendly international football game here today at the Marvin Lee Stadium at 6:00 pm (5:00 pm Jamaica).

The return leg is slated for Kingston’s National Stadium on October 10.

Originally set for the Hasely Crawford Stadium, the contest between the FIFA 76th-ranked Trinidad and Tobago and the 83rd-ranked Jamaica was switched to the much smaller Marvin Lee Stadium at the Joao Havalange Centre of Excellence after all football stadia to be used in next month’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup were ordered closed due to FIFA’s inspection of the facilities.

With admission tickets going at TT$40 (adults) and TT$20 (children), pundits here are expecting a full house of about 2,000 spectators for this much anticipated clash, which has as its subplot, the first face-to-face meeting of the head coaches, Jamaica’s Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore and Trinidad and Tobago’s Russell ‘Little Magician’ Latapy.

The two, entertaining ball wizards in their playing days, enjoy iconic status in their homelands, and having now left the playing pitch for the sidelines, it will be interesting to see how their teams perform in what is expected to be an open, attacking affair, if the coaches remain true to their attacking instincts.

The two countries have been swapping places atop the Caribbean ranking on the FIFA list in recent times, but Jamaica slipped two places last month, while Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors climbed 19 slots to overtake the Reggae Boyz.

Whitmore has included six overseas-based players to lend experience to his squad, while Latapy has included only two foreign-based players to support his locally-based professional outfit.

The six include veteran goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, who is the first choice for the LA Galaxy in the US Major League Soccer; Dane Richards of the New York Red Bulls; Shavar Thomas of the Kansas City Wizards; Ryan Johnson of the San Jose Earthquakes; Eric Vernan of Nybergsund IL and Rodolph Austin of SK Brann, both of the Norwegian League.

All the Jamaican players arrived in Trinidad on Monday night, except Austin, who arrived early yesterday morning. “Over the weeks the preparation has gone fairly well. We played a number of local practise games and now we’re playing against a Caribbean team and we know what to expect from them,” Whitmore told the media yesterday.

“With the overseas-based players invited, they bring experience to the team and to the game itself. It appears to be a very interesting game tomorrow (today) against the Trinidad team,” he added ahead of the team’s only training session on the artificial surface at the Marvin Lee Stadium. There, the team was taken through tactical manoeuvres in a 3-4-3 formation, as well as set plays.

Ricketts was in goal, backed by Thomas in the centre of defence and flanked by Dicoy Williams to his right and Jermaine Taylor to his left.

The midfield was marshalled by Richard Edwards, Austin, Troy Smith of Village United in his first international, and Eric Vernan.

The three-man attack was formed by Johnson, who silenced the Argentines with his debut goal in February’s game, Kavin Bryan and the speedy Richards.

Whitmore, the two-goal hero of the Reggae Boyz’s 2-1 victory over Japan at the France 1998 World Cup Finals in Lyon, has had protestations from players about the artificial playing surface in the past, but now he wants his players to “get accustomed to these sorts of conditions because we might encounter these fields in World Cup qualifiers and we will have to play on them”.

Since the Reggae Boyz’s launched their 2014 World Cup programme at the start of the year, they have edged Canada 1-0 at the National Stadium, lost 1-2 to Argentina in Mar Del Plata, then gave a creditable account of themselves in a 0-2 defeat after a difficult turn-around trip to Germany to play 2010 World up hosts South Africa.

Now Whitmore wants to get back on a winning note, while at the same time, striking the delicate balance of trying to expose players as well.

Three youngsters have been included into his 19-man squad in Devon Williams of Real Mona; Oneil Fisher of Harbour View and Andre Blake of Sporting Central Academy, and although the managers of the teams have yet to agree on the maximum number of substitutions, both coaches are prepared to expose as many players as possible.

“It’s a combination of things; our football depends on results, so we definitely want to get a positive result. We’re playing against a Trinidad team and we know the rivalry between these countries. It’s a friendly game and we want to keep it as friendly as possible, but we want to get as much as we can out of this game,” Whitmore noted.

Latapy, while acknowledging the fierce rivalry that obtains between the two countries, struck a philosophical note when he analysed today’s encounter.

“We have a pro league here and it’s of a fairly decent standard so our team will mostly be based from this league… I think for us we’re in the process of rebuilding and we have to give a lot of opportunities to the young players to come forward and show what they can do.

“I would say our main goal will be qualification for 2014 World Cup, just like Jamaica as well, and this is where the process begins.

“We always had a rivalry with Jamaica, but this is only when we cross the white line, we’ve always supported Jamaica and the same way Jamaica has always supported Trinidad when one or the other gets through (in World Cup qualifying), so this is a good opportunity to analyse where we are because, as they say, we know that on paper, if everything goes to form, these are the two strongest teams in the English-speaking Caribbean and maybe these are the two teams which will be playing the final of the Digicel Caribbean Cup in a few months, so it is an opportunity to have a look at Jamaica, and in doing so we can measure where we are and I’m sure it is the same for Jamaica,” said the man who assumed the head coach’s job last year.

“I wasn’t prepared to call any foreign players from their clubs, but there were a couple of players from the Puerto Rico Islanders who volunteered to come back, and I’m never going to say no to those who want to represent their country. So it is all local-based, except for two — Keon Daniel and Kendall Jagdeosingh.”

But the ‘Little Magician” can count on the pro league’s top marksmen Kerry Baptiste of Joe Public and the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force pair of Devon Jorsling and Kevon Carter for a powerful strike force.

Since the start of this year, the Soca Warrior lost 0-2 away to Chile in a World Cup warm-up before defeating Antigua 4-1 at today’s venue a few weeks ago.

Latapy is convinced his players are slowly beginning to warm to his philosophy.

“We’ve had a few games since I’ve been in charge and it is a work-in-progress and a process that is going to take some time, but in our last game against Antigua I must admit that there were a lot of things that I liked, the way we were moving the ball about and that sort of stuff, so it is a process that will keep going until we can fine tune, but I’m happy to say that I think most of the players are beginning to understand the philosophy and it’s coming along,” he said, reiterating that he prefers the possessional ball-playing approach.

Jamaica’s squad is completed by Andre Blake, Williams, Fisher, Adrian Reid, Ricardo Cousins, Devon Hodges, Kenardo Forbes and Mario Swaby.

Today’s feature match will be preceded by a game between Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-17 women’s team and the senior women’s team at 4:00 pm (3:00 pm Jamaica time).