Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz head to Curacao for the Concacaf Nations League qualifying game against Bonaire cautious, but confident of a strong performance against their tiny opponent.

Team manager Roy Simpson conceded to the Jamaica Observer that Jamaica’s 4-0 home win against the Cayman Islands last month in their opening game remains a source of some disappointment.

The team was criticised for its modesty on the goal-scoring front, and Simpson said nothing will be left to chance when they face Bonaire on Sunday at the Stadion Ergilio Hato in the Curacao capital of Willemstad.

“Not much is known of the Bonaire team, and if you look at their history, they have only just become a full member of Concacaf, and they are not yet even a member of Fifa… but that does not negate the fact that they are playing in the Nations League.

“Of course at our stage of our football development we are expected to beat a Bonaire, but we will not be entering the contest believing that this is going to be a walk in the park… we have to play hard and we have to get a number of goals because we didn’t get the number of goals we wanted against the Cayman Islands, so hopefully we can be more surgical and clinical against Bonaire,” Simpson noted.

The Boyz manager said that Jamaica have more to lose if they fail to bring their ‘A’ game to the pitch.

“It is who wants it more, and I think in this case we want it more and I am looking forward to a convincing victory for Jamaica,” said Simpson.

The Concacaf Nations League, a ground-breaking confederation-wide tournament, is a three-tier league system, which will determine team placement through the current qualifying phase.

Jamaica, Concacaf’s highest ranking Caribbean team, is targeting League A, where the confederation’s World Cup Hexagonal campaigners — USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and Honduras — have already been placed.

“It is not how you finish in a group, it’s all about how you finish overall on the standings that get you promoted to the various leagues, and we intend to get promoted to League A… if one finishes in the top-six of these qualifiers, then you get into League A and into the Gold Cup.

“We have been to back-to-back Gold Cup finals and we are thinking that in the next edition we can win it, but we realise in the Nations League that we have to be on top of our game by scoring goals, winning matches, we get points, because, at the end of the day, it is the overall standing of the team that is going to take you where you want to go,” Simpson reasoned

After Bonaire, Jamaica will play their next game in the Concacaf Nations League against Suriname at the Montego Bay Sports Complex on November 17.

The local delegation will depart for Curacao via Miami today at 7:25 am.

Squad — Andre Blake, Amal Knight, Jeadine White, Michael Hector, Darren Mattocks, Cory Burke, Je-Vaughn Watson, Peter-Lee Vassell, Owayne Gordon, Damion Lowe, Ricardo Thomas, Alex Marshall, Ricardo Morris, Javon East, Fabian Reid, Jamiel Hardware, Dane Kelly, Devon Williams, Fabion McCarthy, Shaun Francis.