National senior men’s football team Head Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson says Jamaica’s international friendly against Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) on Tuesday night will still be more about the performance than the result.

The Reggae Boyz lost 0-1 in their first game, played in Montego Bay on Saturday, and while Hallgrímsson says the score was disappointing, he is more concerned about seeing how the new recruits, comprising both local-based and England-based youngsters, fit into his long-term plan as he prepares for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

“Nobody likes to lose and you should never say after losing a game that it is not a problem, but it’s more about giving players a chance to show if they can be a part of the next camp, the Mexico camp, and the Gold Cup,” Hallgrímsson said in a media scrum ahead of a training session on Monday morning. “Are they ready? Do we need to wait a year for them to be ready, etcetera?”

Hallgrímsson says he is pleased with the squad’s approach to the training camp.

“It’s good,” he said. “I’d really like to give credit to the boys. They have been very professional in everything they have been doing. It’s the first national team camp for a lot of players. So I will give them a lot of credit for how they have behaved, how they have trained, in meetings. We are just trying to build something to explain our emphasis in football. I’m really happy with the players.”

But Hallgrímsson says regardless of his feelings about the team’s approach to training, he would still want a better result in the next game.

Eighteen-year-old midfielder Delano McCoy-Splatt made his debut on Saturday and is eager to get his second international cap on Tuesday. For him, high confidence is important to get a positive result from this game.

“We’re going into that game positively, as we did in the first game,” McCoy-Splatt told the Jamaica Observer. “We’ve had a few more days of training. Everyone’s just chilling, but we’re just gonna go in confidently and hopefully, we’ll win.”

Reon Moore found T&T’s winner in the 62nd minute, five minutes after entering play as a substitute on Saturday. He will be looking to link up with Captain Joevin Jones again to find further inspiration in the second game.

Hallgrímsson may rotate the starting 11 heavily as he wants to see the potential of everyone in the squad.

“We have already decided who will play and we want to see everyone in the squad play,” he said. “We’re going to give everyone a chance to show what they can do and they deserve it.”

While Hallgrímsson is assessing players to see who can make the squad for the next training camp ahead of the Reggae Boyz’s Concacaf Nations League game against hosts Mexico, T&T will be preparing to face The Bahamas in the same tournament on March 24, then a Concacaf Gold Cup qualifier against Nicaragua three days later.

This evening’s game is scheduled to kick off at 7:00 inside the National Stadium.