JAMAICA’S Reggae Boyz could top Group A of the Concacaf Gold Cup with a win against St Kitts and Nevis (SKN) this evening but Head Coach Heimir Hallgrímsson says topping the group is not crucial.

Jamaica is second in the group on four points after a draw and a win against the United States of America (USA) and Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), respectively, but it’s the USA who lead. Their 1-1 draw with Jamaica and a 6-0 win over SKN on Wednesday put them on top with a goal difference of +6, three more than the Reggae Boyz who beat T&T 4-1.

“I assume we all want to win this group,” Hallgrímsson said in a pre-match press conference on Saturday afternoon. “It’s not a necessary thing but it’s always good to top a group. If we do that it’s gonna be down to goal difference — but we cannot control the other groups so we don’t know who we face. We want to go to this match and win it, and we want to qualify as the leaders of this group. That is our aim but it’s not only down to us, of course. There’s another game in the group. It’s not the most important thing but it’s psychologically important to win the group.”

The Jamaicans are strongly favoured to win this game as SKN have conceded 9 goals and scored none so far in the tournament, but Hallgrímsson would give nothing away about how he plans to approach it or how much rotating he may do to the squad.

Midfielder Daniel Johnson, who also attended the press conference, says the most important thing is not how they win but that they do.

“It doesn’t matter if we finish first, it doesn’t matter if we finish second,” he said. “The most important thing is to win the game, and then whatever else happens after that will take care of itself and we’ll just look forward to the next one.”

Hallgrímsson made three changes to the backline in the game against T&T but says it was not necessarily because of the performance of the team, as the squad has to be rotated to keep players fit.

“We have pretty equal players at the back so it’s not a big difference in these players quality-wise,” he said. “There have been injuries, so we don’t want to overdo and risk injuries to the players so that’s why we have been rotating. And we’ve been happy with the performance of, not only the defence but all the team. There’s a lot of reasons why we are changing — it’s not only performance but it’s thinking ahead as well.”

As this is the final game of the group, it will be played simultaneously with the USA’s match against T&T to prevent one outcome from influencing the other.

Both of these games kick off at 6 pm Jamaica time but Jamaica will be playing at Levi Stadium in Santa Clara, California, while the other occurs at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The winners of Group A meet the runners-up of Group D, while Group A’s runners-up face Group D’s winners.

Group D consists of Guatemala, Canada, Guadeloupe, and Cuba.