Puebla, Mexico — A confident but cautious Jamaica Under-20 team will continue their quest for the World Cup finals when they play Puerto Rico in their opening Group C encounter at the Estadio Cuauhtemoc in Mexico starting at 6:30pm Jamaican time.

Head coach Luciano Gama told the Jamaica Observer that the young Boyz were ready for battle following their two weeks training camp in Toluca, Mexico City.

“Everything that we could do we did it so we are very calm and very confident. I slept very well because the preparation that we had maybe, was the better we had in the history of the Under-20 team,” said Gama.

“We had two weeks in Mexico and better prepared for the altitude but football today is very unbalance as you could see it the other games. We had a draw with USA and they beat Haiti, and Cuba that we draw with beat the Canada team,” Gama pointed out.

He and assistant coach Alfredo Montesso watched the opening games on Monday in which the USA had to battle hard to beat Haiti 2-1 while Cuba clipped Canada, also with a 2-1 scoreline.

“So we must respect Puerto Rico and Panama and we going very confident and very cautious in what we can do and if they have a very good performance we have a big chance of coming home with a good result today,” he added.

Meanwhile Damian Lowe, the son of former national player Onandi Lowe has been included in Jamaica’s starting eleven.

The former Camperdown player now at the University of Hartford in the USA will start alongside captain Alvas Powell in the heart of the defence. 

And with Kareem Manning suspended for this game, Zhelano Barnes gets the nod at left back with Sean McFarlene dropping at right back.

Omar Holness, Romario Jones and Keneil Kirlew of Montego Bay United will be in midfield with the skillful pair of Andre Lewis and Paul Wilson more advanced in flanking Cleon Pryce up front.

St Jago High’s Rashaun Patterson gets the nod in goal ahead of Nico Campbell of St George’s College, which means that five players from the Under-17 World Cup in 2011 will be starting today.

Jamaica are drawn in Group C alongside Puerto Rico and Panama with the top two teams advancing to the quarterfinal of which the four semi-finalist will qualify for the FIFA World Cup set for June 21-July 18 in Turkey.

Jamaica U20 team:

Rashaun Partherson

Sean McFarlane

Alvas Powell

Damion Lowe

Zhelano Barnes

Romario Jones

Andre Lewis

Omar Holmes

Keneil Kirlew

Paul Wilson

Cleon Pryce