BOCA CHICA, Dominican Republic — Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz get their Rio Olympics quest under way today when they meet hosts the Dominican Republic in a Caribbean Football Union Group Three qualifying game at the Estadio Panamericano in San Cristobal.

Match time is 4:30 pm (3:30 pm Jamaica time).

The game follows the curtain-raiser between Guyana and Cuba in a Group Four encounter. The Dominican Republic is hosting two groups of the first round of these qualifiers.

In the opening round of Group Three on Friday, the hosts Dominican Republic blew away Dominica 8-0 to give themselves the cushion of three points and a healthy goal difference.

In the Group Four opener on the same day, Guyana crushed St Kitts and Nevis 11-0.

Meanwhile, Jamaica coach Hue Menzies has expressed confidence of victory today, but he will not grandstand against a team playing at home with obvious advantages.

“They have the momentum and a bit of confidence on their side as a win pretty much means you are through, but hopefully we will catch them a little laid-back because they may feel that they are through already, so we would want to catch them there.

“But they are the host nation, so they will have some backing (from supporters)… but even so we are confident that we can go out there and get a result,” he told the Jamaica Observer after a light training session at the Boca Chica community park, which is used for baseball camps and games.

Instead of having the scheduled evening training session, Menzies and his technical team opted for the early morning workout which was mainly fitness drills supervised by trainer William Hitzelberger.

“We just travelled so we needed that recovery time, but this (yesterday) morning it was important to get the legs back in and to get some type of rhythm, and we didn’t want to take the chance to go out there in the heat and we have to be cognizant of those things,” the coach explained.

Menzies, who oversees the gamut of the Jamaica women’s programme, has decided on the attacking 4-3-3 formation for today’s game, articulating that it suits the athletic nature of most of the players within the ranks.

“We are going to play a 4-3-3 formation and that’s no secret as we are a very athletic team so we have to spread ourselves wide and try and get behind them and we are going to try and take full advantage of that… and after that we will see what transpires in the game and see if we need to change formation or to start channeling people in the middle,” he noted.

He will start with Nicole McClure in goal, with Konya Plummer and Alika Keene in the heart of defence, while they are flanked by Monique Pryce (left) and Ashley Shim. In midfield, Kai-Lin Hernandez, Kadisha Shaw and Christina Murray have been tasked, as the three-prong attack will feature Donna-Kay Henry, Christine Exeter and veteran Venecia Reid.

A six-day camp held in Winter Springs, Florida, prior to the group arriving in the Dominican Republic, was focused on the fitness of the players, and the process of trying to get the girls’ physical actualisation up remains an ongoing campaign.

“If we look at this process over the last year we have seen improvement, but the most important point we keep making with this team is that we are not at a fitness level to compete internationally and we need to continue and improve that.

“I am excited about our progress but there is still a lot to do, but I think this tournament will be fine and as we get to better competition our fitness will show… it’s going to take more time to get to the fitness level that we need to be at,” noted Hitzelberger.

Jamaica’s final match of the tournament will be against Dominica on Tuesday.

Two other groups in the CFU qualifiers are being hosted by Puerto Rico and St Lucia.