WILLEMSTAD, Curacao — Curacao Football Federation president Gilbert Martina has hailed the success of Jamaica’s football programme and hopes his team can replicate it going forward.

Curacao will host the Reggae Boyz on Friday at the Ergilio Hato Stadium  in their crucial Concacaf World Cup Qualifier.

In terms on rankings, Curacao would be seen as the underdogs as Jamaica are seventh in Concacaf and 69th in the world, compared to Curacao’s 12th in Concacaf and 84th in the world.

Despite not qualifying for the World Cup since 1998, Jamaica have been the most successful Caribbean team with multiple Concacaf Gold Cup final appearances as well as top placings in the Concacaf Nations League.

Martina says he wants to see some of the Reggae Boyz best attributes reflected in Curacao’s programme in the future.

“Jamaica is known for the strength and the philosophy, a very physical team,”  he told the Jamaica Observer. “We don’t have players with that kind of physicality – we have players that are very technical because all of the players have been educated in Holland, the Dutch football school.”

“So I admire Jamaican football, I admire the strength, I admire the speed and those things are things that we definitely can use and learn from for our national team.”

The Reggae Boyz lead the group with six points, while Curacao sit two points behind in second. A win for Jamaica will put them on the verge of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup but a win for Curacao would push them to the top of the standings with three games to play.

Only the group winner is guaranteed a spot at next summer’s showpiece in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

— Daniel Blake