DEEP BAY, Antigua — In their do-or-die contest this evening against Martinique at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz are expected to make “some changes” to the team that started against French Guiana in a 2-1 losing effort on Saturday night.

Assistant coach Alfredo Montesso did not say who will be in or out, but stated that there would be a mild shake-up for the 7:00 pm (6:00 pm Jamaica time) showdown. The final team, he revealed, would be known following a training session due last evening at Queen Harbour and would also be contingent on the advice of the team doctor.

“For the Martinique game, I don’t think we will have many changes, but we will have some changes, especially with the performance in the second half,” he said.

“We told the team that this is a tournament not for 11 or 14 players, but for all 23 players because we have a game every 48 hours, so we have to work very straight with the medical department to hear from Dr (Carlton) Fraser and (masseur) Pablo (Camargo) to see how they recover from each game,” Montesso noted.

In Saturday’s surprise defeat of the double back-to-back champions, head coach Theodore ‘Tappa’ Whitmore banked on Dwayne Miller, Shavar Thomas, Montrose Phinn, Andrae Campbell, Xavian Virgo, Demar Phillips, Jason Morrison, Keammar Daley, Jermaine Hue, Ryan Johnson and Tramaine Stewart to get the Boyz off to a winning start.

With things not going exactly to plan, a double substitution in the 52nd minute of Darren Mattocks replacing Jermaine Hue and Omar Cummings in for Ryan Johnson, spurred the Jamaicans after they had fell dangerously behind with the score at 2-1.

As a further boost, the Jamaican bench re-introduced the veteran Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner for injured Andre Campbell after a three-year absence in the 57th minute, and the former Bolton Wanderers star, obviously a margin off his former pace, looked sharp otherwise in dictating a passing game from midfield.

Another match-rusty player, Preston North End’s Keammar Daley, played the full 90-plus minutes in Saturday’s loss and did himself justice, all things considered.

In the fateful match, the Boyz conceded an own goal in the 19th minute before being interred by French Guiana’s Rudy Evens’s strike in the 48th minute after Tramaine Stewart had revived hopes in the 22nd.

Though the pool is wide to select a powerful 11 from for tonight’s must-win contest, it would appear those mentioned above will be high in the pecking order.

“I think for each game we will have to push with the best that we have… the best that we have in this type of tournament will be players who will recover better and be at 100 per cent for the game we are about to face,” said Montesso, a Brazilian with a long association with Jamaica’s football dating back to the successful Road to France campaign.

The Caribbean Cup, which serves as a qualifier for next summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup in the USA, is critical for Jamaica as it will also provide the last meaningful preparation for the CONCACAF final round of the Brazil 2014 World Cup eliminations that starts on February 6, 2013.

“It’s important to qualify to the semi-finals as it will give us the spot to go to the Gold Cup, so qualifying for the next round is very important to us,” noted Montesso.

The Brazilian suggested that all three Caribbean teams — Jamaica, Cuba and Antigua and Barbuda — who were engaged in the semi-finals of the World Cup qualifying tournament, have lost their opening matches here and he suggested that’s no coincidence.

“I was just talking with a member of the Cuban team and Antigua as well, and we have all just finished a very tough World Cup qualifying tournament that all of us were highly-motivated to play, which the other teams were not involved in, so they had time to prepare themselves,” he said.

Martinique captain Fabrice Reuperne, while expressing profound respect for Jamaica, said come today there will be no love between the teams as his country also has its set of goals.

“We know that Jamaica is a very good team… they are very tactical and physical and the players are very good and we respect this team, but we are here and we have one objective and that is to go to the Gold Cup and we want to qualify tomorrow (today),” he said.

Even with six professionals playing on the continent in France within their ranks, Martinique are aware that an injured Jamaica could be twice as fearsome.

“We know that Jamaica will want to recover from that accident (loss to French Guiana) and that will make it difficult for us… it still will be difficult even though we have the best team right now,” Reuperne said.

Jamaica, who go into tonight’s game without a point like Cuba, will face the latter in their final Group B match on Wednesday. Both departments of France — Martinique and French Guiana — are due for a French showdown to close out their preliminaries on the same day.

Last night, Group A leaders Dominican Republic were down to battle Haiti and hosts Antigua and Barbuda were due to launch a rescue of their fading campaign against Trinidad and Tobago at the Antigua Recreation Ground.

Other members of the Jamaican squad are: Duwayne Kerr, Jacomeno Barrett, Dicoy Williams, Alvas Powell, Rohan Reid, Lamar Nelson, Lovel Palmer, Jermaine Anderson and Ewan Grandison.