SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Xavier Gilbert, coach of Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz, is expected to make several changes to his side today when they take on Puerto Rico in their second match of the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) championships.

Match time is at 5:00 pm.

The Jamaicans are fielding an understrength team for the championships because a number of senior players are preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup tournament in Australia and New Zealand this month.

They were hammered 2-5 by hosts El Salvador in their last encounter on Thursday night.

Gilbert was upbeat despite the heavy defeat.

“We just have to bounce back in our next game because it was a tough loss and so we just have to go out there and get it right on Saturday,” said Gilbert.

“Yes, we will make changes because it is a tournament where it is still part of a lot of them learning curved and some of them will probably be looking forward to be part of the next FIFA World Cup squad, and so it is important that they get some minutes and get the necessary exposure as well.

“We are still in the tournament, and we are still trying to see if we can get to the next round because we have two games to go and so we are going to give it our best,” Gilbert said.

The Reggae Girlz began the match shakily as they trailed the Salvadorans 0-2 after 12 minutes. In fact, the Jamaicans trailed 1-3 at half-time as they were outplayed by their opponents in all departments of the game.

With the home fans cheering on them in the second period, the El Salvador outclassed the Jamaicans and scored two more goals to wrap up the match.

Gilbert noted that they must be defensively solid and stick to the game plan against Puerto Rico.

“Getting a positive result in our next game is of utmost importance to us and that is what we are focusing on right now,” he said.

“We have to play better defensively because it is a big pitch and it is a massive field and I don’t think we handled and condensed the pace right and that is where we lost the game,” Gilbert said.

“The distance between the lines were too far, hence we paid the price for that,” he said. “I also think that with the noise coming from the home fans, it was difficult to get our messages out there to players, but that is what international football is all about,” Gilbert pointed out.