Jamaica’s Under-20 Reggae Boyz will enter their crunch match against Mexico in the Concacaf Under-20 Men’s Championship in a buoyant mood following victories over Grenada and Nicaragua at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Match time is 8:00 pm Jamaica time.

Jamaica and Mexico sit atop of Group B with six points followed by Aruba on four, St Martin with one and Grenada and Nicaragua pointless after two games.

With only the group winners advancing to the final round, the match between Jamaica and Mexico will more than likely decide the group winner.

Jamaica head coach Jerome Waite acknowledged that this will be a mammoth encounter against the regional football giants.

“Mexico is the team touted to go far and not only win the group, but win the tournament,” Waite told the Jamaica Observer via telephone yesterday.

“Our players have some quality and we just have to continue improving. Today we have a training session and we will see how that goes,” he added.

Jamaica will be sweating on top defender Javain Brown who is nursing an injury, while everyone is basically OK.

The young Reggae Boyz will once again be depending on the silky playmaking skills of Tyrek Magee, Tevin Rochester, Nique Daley, Ricardo McIntosh, Shandel Senior, goalscoring defender Jamoi Topey and Leonardo Fogarthy for victory.

Jamaica, ranked 12th in the region at this level, last qualified for a FIFA Under-20 World Cup in 2001. They trail Mexico on goal difference, having defeated Grenada and Nicaragua 1-0 and 3-0. The second-ranked Mexico brushed aside Nicaragua 7-0 and St Martin 4-0.

The 2018 edition of the Under-20 Championship, will be disputed between a record number of 34 Concacaf Member Associations. Unlike the previous format, which included regional qualifiers in the Caribbean and Central America and one final championship, this year’s redesigned competition will ensure that all the participating teams have access to play more top-level football matches.

The teams are placed into four groups of six teams and two groups of five teams. As previously announced, the top six ranked teams in the new Concacaf Men’s Under-20 ranking as the defending champion United States as number one ahead of Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Costa Rica and El Salvador.

These seeded teams are kept apart and placed in six different groups. The remaining 28 teams were placed into five pots and drawn using a single blind system.

After round-robin play, the six group winners will advance to the qualification stage, where they will be divided into two groups of three teams. After a second-round robin play, the two group winners plus the second-placed finishers will qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Additionally, the two group winners will advance to the tournament’s final to determine the regional champion.

– Howard Walker