Jamaica senior men’s football team interim Head Coach Rudolph Speid hopes the players involved in today’s international friendly against Caribbean neighbours Grenada will make use of the opportunity.

Although the Reggae Boyz will soon begin preparations for March’s FIFA intercontinental play-offs against New Caledonia in Mexico for a chance to advance to the World Cup play-off later in the year, Speid previously shared that today’s game is just an opportunity to give players inexperienced internationally an some exposure. This, he said, has always been a Jamaica Football Federation priority as they normally take part in similar matches against Caribbean rivals at this time of the year.

Today’s game, which will start at 4:00 pm Jamaica time at the Kirani James Athletic Stadium in St George’s, Grenada, will be the fourth friendly international between the teams. The two sides have met 12 times, with Jamaica winning nine of those encounters.

Speid named three first-time invitees in his 24-man squad to face Grenada today, with a number of senior US-based players also recalled to the team.

After staging several training sessions in Jamaica before leaving the island on Friday, Speid said the players have settled well.

“Things have gone very well, as good as it could get,” he said. “I think the players put in a lot of effort. We did some tactical things, and they seem to have adapted nicely.”

Grenada are coached by former Portmore United Captain Anthony Modeste, and while Speid said they had an idea of what the “Spice Boys” would do, he stressed the importance of maintaining focus.

“Our objective is to keep our focus. We want to look at some of these players to see how they can fit into the team going forward and also to see some of the developments that we have made,” Speid said.

Speid added that it will also be a good time for the coaching staff to get “synchronised” as they continue preparations for the play-offs in March.

The new players, he said, were doing well.

“They all bring something different to the team, which we need, to get a first and close-up look at these players,” he said. “Even some of the players that would have played in the past and have been out of the national team for a while, we want to look at them now and see what they can bring.”

Grenada have beaten Jamaica once in 12 meetings dating back to 1997, but the Reggae Boyz have won the last three encounters and five of the last six between the teams.

Jamaica won just one of its three World Cup qualifying games in the October FIFA window — a 4-0 win over Bermuda — before costly draws against Trinidad and Tobago and Curacao knocked them out of automatic qualification for the World Cup.

Grenada, on the other hand, have won their last five games against Caribbean rivals and will be confident going into the contest, especially playing at home.

Jamaica men’s squad

Goalkeepers: Amal Knight, Tafari Chambers, Daniel Russell

Defenders: Damion Lowe, Ronaldo Webster, Christopher Ainsworth, Kyle Ming, Stephen Young, Fitzroy Cummings, Jeovanni Laing, Nico Brown

Midfielders: Jahshaun Anglin, Shamar Watson, Nickyle Ellis, Kevon Lambert, Dwight Merrick, Adrian Reid

Forwards: Corey Burke, Warner Brown, Nickalia Fuller, Dwayne Atkinson, Deshane Beckford, Jourdain Fletcher, Daniel Green

Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz in a recent training session at the National Stadium. (Photo: Karl McLarty)

SPEID…we want to look at some of these players to see how they can fit into the team going forward and also to see some of the developments that we have made (Photo: Naphtali Junior)