In what was likely Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz last game before their FIFA World Cup play-offs next month, interim head coach Rudolph Speid says he will strongly consider some of the local-based talent for the future squad after impressing him against Martinique.

The national senior men’s team, which featured solely players from the Jamaica Premier League (JPL), got the better of hosts Martinique 2-0 on Saturday in an international friendly at the Stade Pierre Aliker in Fort-De-France.

Racing United forward Nickyle Ellis, in his second international appearance, opened the scoring in the 22nd minute before assisting Mount Pleasant Football Academy forward Daniel Green in the 64th minute to seal the victory.

Six players were handed their debut — Racing United talisman Tajay Grant, Cavalier FC midfielder Dwayne Allen, Portmore United goalkeeper Daniel Russell, Mount Pleasant Forward Raheem Edwards, and Arnett Gardens duo Jaheim Thomas and Rushike Kelson.

Speid believes several local players did enough to justify a call-up to next month’s inter confederation play-offs against New Caledonia and potentially DR Congo.

“This game was really to help to shape some type of pattern, standards that we wanted to play. Also, this team is purely local-based players — we [usually] have players from overseas, so we wanted to establish the players that we can depend on in the play-off if we need to call on them, and I think we did that,” he said.

“I thought the players were in control for most of the game, they moved the ball well, they didn’t have to rush their plays. I just thought that the players acclimatised well and our few players really stood out for us today.”

Martinique are ranked 13th in Concacaf, five places below Jamaica, and have just one victory in the last three years.

However, Speid says the hosts provided a good challenge for his team.

“I thought they started sprightly, very well initially, but I think as soon as we scored, they had to dig a little deeper, and I thought they put up a really good fight until we scored the second goal and I suppose we were just in cruise control,” he said.

“The game would have dropped this quality somewhat when they started to make changes, so that’s what happened at the end of the game, but I thought Martinique played extremely well for a team that doesn’t have the international experience (3:28) that we have, I think they did well.”

Mount Pleasant defender Kyle Ming, who won multiple JPL titles with Speid at Cavalier, captained Jamaica for the first time in his seventh cap.

He believes the local-based squad did well, but says improvements will be needed.

“Martinique gave it their all, but at the end of the day, we played a better ball game and we came victorious. We just have to go back to the drawing board and do our job,” Ming said.

“Going forward, I think we need to move better on the ball and communicate better, so we can get better angles to play and execute the tactics that the coach wants.”

With the March 26 clash with New Caledonia on the horizon, Speid says the friendly was helpful in improving their preparations.

“New Caledonia is a little bit different. Although they are a French colony just like Martinique, which is one of the reasons why we took the game, we figured there would be some similarities,” he said.

“So, of course, they are a little different, so we’ll have to go back and look at what we did well here today, and what we could improve and look at New Caledonia just to see how we can possibly defeat them and go on to the final.”

Speid will have a full squad to select from for March’s play-offs in Mexico where the European, Asian, and American-based players are set to make a return.

Wins against New Caledonia and DR Congo will book Jamaica’s spot at this summer’s World Cup in the USA, Canada, and Mexico where they will join Portugal, Colombia, and Uzbekistan in Group K.

Jamaica Reggae Boyz forwards Daniel Green (left) and Nickyle Ellis pose for a celebratory photo after each scoring in the 2-0 win over host Martinique in an international friendly at Stade Pierre-Aliker in Fort-De-France on Saturday.

Captain Kyle Ming before the start of the Jamaica Reggae Boyz international friendly football match against host Martinique at Stade Pierre-Aliker in Fort-De-France. Photo: JPK Visual

SPEID…we wanted to establish the players that we can depend on in the play-off if we need to call on them (Photo: Naphtali Junior)