Waterhouse Football Club and Cavalier Football Club will chase glory and a piece of Jamaican football history when they face off in the final of the Jamaica Premier League at The University of the West Indies (UWI)-Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) Captain Horace Burrell Centre of Excellence starting at 2:30 pm today.

In the third-place play-off at midday, beaten semi-finalists Mount Pleasant Football Academy and Tivoli Gardens Football Club oppose each other for the consolation prize.

Waterhouse have won the title only twice in their history, in 1998 and 2006, while Cavalier have been national champions only once in the storied history, when they won the title in 1981.

A truncated season of only 10 regular season games and the play-offs, as a result of the challenges caused by COVID-19, will culminate at a venue being used to host the league for the very first time.

Waterhouse are led by a home-grown coach in Marcel “Fuzzy” Gayle, while Cavalier are led by a technical director, who is also part owner of the club, in Rudolph Speid.

Both leaders are emotionally heavily invested in their clubs and will crave winning the first premier league title of their careers.

Gayle’s first head-coaching job was at The UWI Football Club, but since he took over at the helm at Waterhouse, where he was an assistant coach for a year before heading to The UWI, he has taken them to the final twice. Those two losses will still burn the Waterhouse native and he must be feeling that now is the time to put his hands on the trophy.

Speid has only ever been at Cavalier and has never been in this position before. He has already admitted that his team has checked all their boxes this season. Winning would be a bonus for Cavalier based on the targets set out at the start of the season. However, after reaching the final, Speid has admitted that he now wants to go all the way.

The two teams played out a 2-2 draw in match week seven, with Waterhouse coming from behind twice to earn a point. Dwayne Atkinson scored both goals for Cavalier in that game, while Damion Binns bagged a brace for Waterhouse.

That game was the last time Waterhouse drew a match this season, until the return leg semi-final on Wednesday. Up until that point they had secured five wins in a row.

Cavalier have not lost a game or conceded a goal in their last four matches, including the semi-finals, showing great defensive stability at the right time.

In Shaqueil Bradford on six goals and Andre Fletcher on five goals, Waterhouse have two of the leading scorers this season and they will be looking for these two youngsters to get them over the line.

Shaniel Thomas, who has four goals, will lead the line for Cavalier. His strike partner Dwayne Atkinson will remember his personal success against Waterhouse earlier this season and will be looking to replicate that today. Cavalier’s not-so-secret, secret weapon in Collin Anderson, could be a real threat coming off the bench.

The battle in midfield could be the key to success to either team in this final.

Damion Binns and Ramone Howell complement each other well in midfield for Waterhouse. Binns is more of a destroyer, while Howell is the passer with the ability to unlock defences. It will be an interesting contest between those two and the Cavalier pair of Melvin Doxilly and Nickache Murray.

Both Doxilly and Murray play well either side of the ball, with Murray coming in for praises for his passing accuracy from Speid after his assist led to the game-winning goal against Tivoli Gardens in the first semi-final.

At the heart of defence for Waterhouse, Nicholy Finlayson seems to have found a reliable foil in Elvis Wilson, who has kept his place in the starting 11 since being brought in to partner with his captain midway through the season.

They will be hoping to tame a Cavalier attack that is expected to welcome back their most influential attacking player in Ronaldo Webster.

The winger has been out with an ankle injury for the past few weeks and missed both semi-finals, despite having had rest between the end of the regular season and the semi-finals. But Speid has said that Webster will play some part in the final today.

Rohan King has found a new partner at centre half in Jamoi Topey late in the season and, along with Gadial Irving and Kyle Ming as wing backs, have formed a defensive line that has been very resilient.

This final is likely to be an open affair as both teams prefer to play on the front foot and, with more experienced players in their ranks and a coach that has been to this stage on two previous occasions, Waterhouse will start slight favourites.

This is the first Premier League final that will be played in the daytime in a very long time and, while the heat of the synthetic surface has been a challenge for the players all season, the weather may be a factor in the final as it has rained in the afternoon every day since Wednesday.