MONTEGO BAY, St James — Both Jamaica and Canada are expected to make changes for today’s second Under-17 friendly international at Jarrett Park, starting at 3:00 pm.

Canada dominated Sunday’s first game on a muddy Jarrett Park surface, winning 4-2 as midfielder Keven Aleman scored twice and gave the Jamaican team problems for the full 90 minutes.

Marco Lapenna scored in the 29th minute, Aleman in the 34th and 40th and Jay Chapman in the 58th for the Canadians, while Romario Williams in the 35th minute and Jason Wright from the penalty spot in tie 85th minute scored for the hosts.

Both teams are using the games to help their preparation for next

February’s CONCACAF Under-17 qualifying finals in Western Jamaica for the FIFA World Championships to be held Mexico from June 18 to July 10 next year.

Jamaica’s head coach Wendell Downswell hinted that they could make wholesale changes to Jamaica’s team, as he said it was the first time the coaching staff had gotten the chance to see the team

in action.

Downswell said that with the players taking part in the ISSA schoolboy football competitions, “this is the first time that the staff really got an opportunity to see them together and based on what we have seen there will be changes to the starting team, as some who came on proved themselves”.

There were a number of lessons learned from Sunday’s game, Downswell said, that should carry over today. “The second game we will be more positive,” he said as they were able to assess the skills of the players. He added, that they got off “to a slow start but there was more stability in the second half, there are some positives especially in the last 20 minutes of the game”.

Sean Flemming, the head coach for the Canadian team said while they won the game, the final score “might be flattering, but it was not an easy win”.

Flemming told the Observer: “We did some good things in the game, but I really give Jamaica a lot of credit, as they always kept coming at us and they never dropped their heads and there is a lot of spirit in the team.”

Their arrival in the island about 24 hours before the game was not a deterrent, he said, as they were in Florida three or four days before arriving here and said while they had not seen the Jamaican team, were “expecting a talented, athletic team we just went off history in our preparations”.

On Sunday, the Canadian team quickly took over the game and went ahead in the 29th minute when Lapenna dribbled down the left and hit a low hard shot past goalkeeper Ahkeim Forbes in to the far corner.

It was two-nil five minutes later when Aleman’s free-kick from just outside the area flew past Forbes and into the goal.

Jamaica managed to pull one back a minute later from a swift counter-attack. Delroy Miller went down the right side, beat two defenders before playing the ball across the area into the path of Williams, who was at the far post to tap into the goal.

Aleman restored Canada’s two-goal margin in the 40th minute when he came down the right side and with Forbes advancing off his lie, chipped the ball over the tall goalkeeper’s head and into the unprotected goal.

Canada scored their fourth goal 13 minutes into the second half when Chapman showed off some nifty close ball skills inside the Jamaican penalty area after getting a pass from Aleman before beating Forbes from close range.

Jamaica managed to pull one back with five minutes to go when Wright scored from the penalty spot after a teammate was fouled.