National Under-23 head coach Alfredo Montesso says despite showing signs of improvement, the team still has some fine-tuning to do ahead of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) first-round Olympic qualifiers to be held from August 3-7 in Suriname.

The team drew 1-1 with a Manchester High squad that featured past and present daCosta Cup players last week Thursday, but bounced back to beat newly promoted Premier League outfit Seba United 2-0 at Jarrett Park, St James on Sunday.

Said Montesso yesterday: “We saw some improvement in the way they played on Sunday. There was better co-ordination between the midfielders and forwards and they looked more organised in the Seba game. It still is not as much as we (the coaching staff) desire, but it is better.”

The Jamaica Under-23s continue their preparation today at 3:00 pm with a final practice game against another promoted team, St Mary-based Highgate United at Gray’s Inn in Annotto Bay.

Montesso expects the players to build on the progress that has been made and predicts that the Under-23s will be too strong for the Highgate team.

“We always expect them (the Under-23 players) to be better than the day before. We just need to fix some of the mistakes when we play against Highgate tomorrow (today). I expect them (Highgate) to be similar to Seba as they are also just promoted to the first division here in Jamaica. It should be a good game, but the Under-23s should win,” he said.

The Young Reggae Boyz are scheduled to depart the island on August 1, to face St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Cayman Islands and Suriname in the four-team group.