FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida — With just two points from five games and staring down the barrel of elimination from next year’s FIFA World Cup Finals in Brazil, Jamaica’s head coach Theodore Whitmore has advised that his team will be positive when it plays away to Honduras tomorrow at 8:00 pm.

The United States of America are in a three-way tie atop the six-nation CONCACAF World Cup final phase with seven points, alongside Costa Rica and Mexico. Panama inched up to six points, while Honduras remain on four points, Jamaica remains rooted at the bottom on two points.

The top three teams gain automatic berths to next year’s Finals in Brazil, with the fourth-placed team entering a two-way play-offs with the winner of the Oceania region in November.

“If you look at our first game against Mexico it was away, so that is the same sort of approach that we will be taking into this Honduras game,” Whitmore told journalists at the end of yesterday’s training session at the Holiday Inn hotel here in Fort Lauderdale.

“It is 11, versus 11 and regardless of the situation we have to put all our differences aside and work towards getting three points come Tuesday (today),” he added.

Following Friday’s gut-wrenching 1-2 loss to the USA, when the Reggae Boyz battled back from a 1-0 deficit to equalise in the 89th minute, then gave up a 90th+2-minute winner, the Boyz departed the island on Saturday afternoon for a familiar base in Fort Lauderdale.

Having played two games inside three days, the players were given the day off to rest and recover, with another stern test ahead of

them tomorrow.

Continuing, Whitmore said the approach will be “similar to the US game. We are aware that Honduras just lost to Costa Rica away, and now they will be at home, and we know the sort of reception we get when we go there. So we just have to prepare and go out there to play good football and try to win the game.”

Whitmore, the former Regage Boyz skipper, said all the players had recovered from those two gruelling encounters last week.

“I think they have recovered somewhat, because from the (last) game players keep having a go, strong talk with each other, and basically that is what is lacking in the team… leadership… and we can’t play the way we did against the USA and then at the end of the day we come inside the changing room and start to quarrel and argue with each other. We need to leave that out on the field.”

But on the flip side, the coach believes it is “a positive sign we see going forward in terms of these players having a go at each other”.

But so far, so good, and Whitmore is happy that none of the players has reported any serious injuries. Though Garath McCleary had experienced some discomfort which forced him to request a substitution against the USA on Friday, he trained fully yesterday. He also noted that the training session was designed to primarily defend crosses, while giving the strikers an opportunity to finish on goal, an area that has proven to be the bane of the team thus far.

“It was about defending crosses and a bit of finishing, because there is not much we can do, because we travel tomorrow (today) to play on Tuesday night, but I thought it went well this afternoon.”

The coach advised that the team will conduct another light workout at the game venue, the Tiburcio Carias Olympic Stadium in Tegucigalpa, some time after the players arrive at midday.

However, though the coach accepted the absence of two players — Alvas Powell and Evan Taylor — for what it is, he wasn’t particularly happy. “This is one of our major concerns in games, because in a situation like this we have players who have to take a different route, but we just have to work and give it our best shot.”

These players apparently do not possess US visas, and were scheduled to depart Jamaica yesterday for Panama to overnight before continuing on to Honduras today.

Fully aware of the difficulties which await the Boyz in Honduras, the coach has remained positive.

“It is always going to be difficult playing away from home, but it is probably the best thing for us, because our backs are against the wall. The Hondurans are at home and would want to go at us, so we just have to keep our shape, keep organised, keep focused, and we will get something out of the game.”

In other games tomorrow, Costa Rica visit the Azteca to face Mexico at 7:00 pm, and the USA host Panama at the CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Washington, at 9:08 pm.