ST MARGARET’S, Trinidad & Tobago — Jamaica’s Under-17 Reggae Boyz are determined to claim the consolation prize when they face Curacao in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) World Cup qualifying third-place match at the Ato Boldon Stadium today.

Match time is 4:00 pm (3:00 pm Jamaica time).

Group A winners Haiti will take on Group B winners Cuba in the final slated for 6:30 pm (5:30 pm Jamaica time).

In Friday’s semi-finals, Haiti beat Curacao 3-1, while Cuba edged Jamaica 1-0.

All semi-finalists, plus the best Group third-placed Suriname, have booked spots to the CONCACAF Championship to be hosted by Panama next year.

Assistant Jamaica coach Omar Edwards said the team is disappointed that they are not playing in the championship match this evening, but vows victory to the end the campaign on a high note.

“We expect to win that game and we intend to do everything in our powers to come third in the competition,” he said yesterday.

Having scouted Curacao, Edwards is of the view that if Jamaica apply themselves, then there should be no reason for them not to win the match.

“We have seen Curacao in total of about three games and the last one was against Haiti, which Haiti won… we have seen where they resort to a medium to a low-pressed game to frustrate the Haitian team and they did that quite well up to about 50 minutes, but quality prevailed at the end of the day.

“We expect they will come and apply that same tactic to try to frustrate us, but what we have to do is to be disciplined and keep our team shape and organisation and when we get our opportunities, we take them,” said Edwards, who coaches Denham Town High School in the ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup competition.

The Tivoli Gardens FC tactician said the Jamaicans have proven in the tournament that they are capable of scoring goals, with all things being equal, he expects the trend to continue.

“Based on statistics we are capable of creating three or more chances in every game, and once we apply that, we will leave on the positive side of things,” he noted.

The coaching staff, headed by Andrew Edwards (no relation to Omar), was at press time undecided on the starting team for today’s game, but it was certain that a number of players who have occupied the bench so far will get their chance to shine.

“We will give the other players an opportunity to play and the players who have not participated as yet are all fairly good players and that is one of the reasons they are here with us… they will now get their opportunity to market themselves,” said Omar Edwards.

The Young Boyz did not have a field training session yesterday as the coaching staff opted for an intense pool exercise focused critically on recovery.

Jamaica will select their starting 11 from Tajay Griffiths, Kendall Edwards, Jamoi Topey, Nickashe Murray, Damani Osei, Blake White, Kimanni Gibbon, Jeremy Verley, Jordan Petrekin, Coby Atkinson, Renato Campbell, Omar Thompson, Nickque Daley, Raewin Senior, Daniel Russell, Kaheem Parris, Horace Ramsay, Jamari Morrison, Cal-Wayne Allen and Chad Letts.

Curacao’s standout player has been Nathan Bernadina who is capable scoring goals and is widely expected to lead his nation’s charge.