PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Head coach Miguel Coley has said that his charges will have to play for pride when they oppose St Vincent & The Grenadines in a meaningless Caribbean Football Union Under-23 Championship third-place play-off here at the Stade Sylvio Cator today at 4:00 pm (3:00 pm Jamaica).

The young Reggae Boyz, were beaten 1-2 by Cuba, while St Vincent & The Grenadines were edged 1-0 by the hosts in last Friday’s double-header. In today’s feature game, Cuba and Haiti meet at 6:30 pm (5:30 pm Jamaica time) in the Championship game, where both teams advanced to the CONCACAF Final Round as Caribbean representatives in October in the United States of America.

“The plan is to win, we always want to win,” Coley told the Jamaica Observer yesterday. “It’s about pride, the fact that we are out of the Olympics, but we have to get something, we can’t come to Haiti and leave without winning a game,” he added.

On Friday the Boyz got off to the worst possible start when they went behind in the seventh minute from a Arichel Hernandez Mora strike with the help of slight goalkeeping by Nico Campbell.

However, the Boyz pulled level shortly after the resumption when Romario Campbell slalomed into the penalty area and worked his way to the goal line before pulling the ball back into a crowded six-yard box for a Cuban boot to prod past the helpless Cuban goalkeeper.

Shortly after, Williams released strike partner Michael Seaton with a smooth through pass which left the Portland Timbers front man one-on-one with the Cuban custodian, but Seaton fluffed his line as the grounded goalkeeper blocked with his legs.

They were made to pay the ultimate price as four minutes from the end Damion Lowe could not clear his line and the ball fell kindly for the Spanish-speaking Caribbean team which made no mistake through Maykel Reyes Azpuy

“We are looking at some fresher legs so there will be one or two changes. We have to do that to give some players an opportunity to showcase their talent also,” added Coley.

Reflecting on the disappointing loss, he said the team started cautiously in the first half, as the players were not as confident as he would have liked.

“However, in the last 15 minutes of the first half I had to make a change and got some opportunities and that momentum carried over into the second half in which we had total control of the game. We got back a goal and should have got probably one or two more clear chances and some half-chances, but up to the 85th minute I think that we were controlling the tempo of the game and the likely goal would have come from Jamaica, but we made a simple error at the back and it cost the team,” he said.

“It’s very disappointing and I know the players are disappointed because I know what this means to them and also to the Jamaican people.”

The coach also rued the levels of concentration displayed by the players, saying that it is something that national coaches will have to look at going forward, especially players in defence.

The gilt-edge chance missed by Seaton, the coach, said, could have changed the direction of the game and won it for Jamaica. “You never know,” he said. “But up to that point we could have killed off the game because it would have got us more control of the game also and I think it could have been our match after that.”