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Today the young Jamaican Reggae Boyz from the small island with a population of less than 3 million people will face off against the big bad United States with a population of over 300 million people. Will it be a case of David slew Goliath or will it be big fish eats small fish? We will know later this evening when the Jamaican U-17 football (soccer) team faces off against the United States U-17 football team.

Everything is at stake in this matchup. The winner will advance to the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile this coming October while the loser will go home.

The Jamaica coach, Andrew Edwards, is very confident that the young Jamaicans will advance to the World Cup Finals in Chile.

“We are very relaxed, composed and are looking forward to today with great excitement and anticipation. We believe we can repeat our performance from Wednesday and win the game. We are determined to do that,” said Edwards.

“We had a very good training session this morning yesterday, our final session, and it was fun to watch the boys enjoying themselves. Once we are able to replicate that come tomorrow, I am pretty certain that we are going to be doing very well and get the victory.”

Coach Edwards will have to make some big decisions on who will start against the United States as the Jamaican team has superb depth. In fact, five of the players who helped to defeat the United States 1-0 in their math less than a week ago, regularly plays off the bench.

“We will be having a few changes, no two ways about that. We have to respect the quality of those who have served us in the past and those who have served us in the most recent times. So we have to create the best balance. But what is most important is that we support each other with the decisions that are made. We have absolute confidence in any player we put on the park,” said Edwards.

“We just want to maintain our composure, want to keep on our focus and our goals on avoid being panicked and rushed in whatever situation may arise, and just play to the best of our ability and have fun,” Edwards reiterated.

18 Karat must admit that we are on the side of coach Edwards.  We hope that come this October; the coach, his staff and all his players will be singing the following song by Sizzla:

On Wednesday, the coach rested several players who were sitting on yellow cards including captain and holding midfielder Shandel Senior, leading goal scorer Nathaniel Adamolekun and creative midfielders Alex Marshall and Peter Lee Vassell. All are expected to regain their starting positions today.

But then there are players like Nicholas Nelson, Tajea Brown, Jahlanie Hammond and Zaire Bartley who left their mark on Wednesday against the USA and will have to revert to the substitutes’ bench, an indication of the depth in the team. Something every coach loves to have.

But despite the confidence in the Jamaican camp, not for one minute can they take the Americans lightly, despite the absence of their captain Hugo Arrelano of LA Galaxy through yellow card accumulation. The Richard Williams-coached team remains a formidable one.

Mexican-based Joe Gallardo Jnr from Monterrey FC is the team’s joint top scorer with four goals, but surprisingly he didn’t start but came on after the hour mark. He should regain his starting position and form a dangerous partnership with Joshua Perez, who is also on four goals.

“Everybody is eager to get out on the park and do his best for Jamaica. Everybody is eager to be a part of this historic moment that we are anticipating,” he concluded.