Still reeling from the disappointment of their brief Olympic-qualifying campaign, Jamaica’s Under-23 Reggae Boyz will be hoping for much better fortunes when they kick-start their Pan American Games campaign against Honduras today.

Game time is 5:30 pm at the Estadio Universidad San Marcos in Lima, while Uruguay and the host nation Peru will contest the other Group B fixture at 8:30 pm.

Mexico, Panama, Ecuador and Argentina will contest Group A at the tournament.

The Jamaicans, who were overwhelmingly favourites to top their group in the Caribbean Olympic qualifier on home soil recently, faltered at the first hurdle, much to the dismay of football enthusiasts, as well as the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA).

Two disappointing 1-1 stalemates against Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis during that campaign saw the Jamaicans finishing second on two points, behind St Kitts and Nevis, who finished top on four points. Dominica ended with one point at the foot of the three-team standing.

However, Head Coach Donovan Duckie and his charges now have an opportunity to redeem themselves, and they will be eager to do all that they can in a bid to secure victory and leave the disappointment behind.

“We have to quickly put our disappointments behind us and be ready for these high-class opponents; we know we have a big task on our hands, but we are here to compete and that is what we intend to do to the best of our abilities and hopefully we can bounce back,” Duckie told the Jamaica Observer from their base in Peru.

While acknowledging that their performance level was below what was expected during the Olympic qualifier, Duckie pointed out that they have been working hard as a team to perform better on important moments.

The tactician also admits that the road to winning a medal at the Pan Am Games — featuring some really good teams — will not be an easy one, but they are striving to be a part of the great podium finish battle.

“We have settled in well, the training sessions have been good; there is a little altitude, so we are still acclimatising but we want to do our country proud, so obviously above all, we want to win a medal.

“But we are going to take it one game at a time and our first objective is to get through this first game against Honduras. Again, we are expecting it to be a really good game and we just want to go out there and give it our best,” Duckie reasoned.

But when facing tough competition a team needs to improve on its strong points as well as its weak points, and for Duckie’s team both lie within their organisation and transition.

As such, Duckie has stressed those as key areas to tighten up on if they are to enjoy any success at these games.

“These teams are very good in all the moments of the game, so we will have to cope with all that they have to offer, and we have to be very organised and good in transition,” he noted.

“That said, we are still a very confident side, again, the team is enjoying training and so we keep working. All the teams here have a great chance of medalling, so we will be brave and confident in all we do,” Duckie ended.

Squad: Jeadine White, Javain Brown, Alex Marshall, Tevin Shaw, Andre Leslie, John Levee, Ajeanie Talbott, Clifton Woodbine, Ricardo Thomas, Kaheem Parris, Deshane Beckford, Lamar Walker, Tyreek Magee, Daniel Green, Shamar Jemison, Leonardo Jibbison, Jourdain Fletcher, Venton Evans.