CATHERINE HALL, St James — Montego Bay United’s Coach Timothy Hankinson has high hopes for today’s historic staging of the first Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League game against DC United at the Montego Bay Sports Complex, set to start at 7:00 pm.

Despite yet to score a goal or earn a point after two games and having conceded six goals and lying at the bottom of the three-team Group H with no hopes of advancing to the next stage, Hankinson said they are ready to show how far they have come since August 5 when they played their first game in the continental competition.

Montego Bay United lost both games played so far by similar 0-3 margins, in Panama against Arabe Unido and then against DC United at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC.

DC United have qualified for the quarter-final stages after winning all three games played so far and lead Group H on nine points, but Hankinson is looking past records.

“The fact that DC United have advanced to the Knockout round is really a minor point from our standpoint,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “We want to show that we have improved since the last time we played them that we made progress, that we are a better team this Tuesday than we were a few weeks ago. And so getting a good result, having a good performance showing areas of improvement is to me the biggest measuring stick of the night.”

Chad Ashton, assistant coach for DC United who will be in charge today, said rather than going through the motion, his team does have a lot to play for against MBU. “We have something to play for,” he said minutes after the team arrived in Montego Bay yesterday. “It matters for the seedings when you advance to quarter-finals.”

Additionally, he said, this game was “a good opportunity for some of our younger players to come to a different country and play against a quality team”.

DC United are not strangers to Jamaica, having played Waterhouse in Kingston in previous editions of the SCCL and Ashton said, “We knew what we experienced in Kingston…we know a little bit what to expect (Tuesday) and this is just great for our younger players…”

In Washington, DC, on August 25, MBU got off to a fast start but wasted a number of chances against what amounted to the DC United reserves.

MBU are coming off a 3-0 win over promoted RSPL team UWI, snapping a three-game run where they failed to score and conceded eight goals, including their opening RSPL game against Portmore United.

If they are to continue on an upward trend, Hankinson says there are some things they must do differently. “Controlling the tempo, being better at our possession, not making the defensive mistakes, not giving up defensive fouls around the box — not just against DC United prior to this, but in our most recent games that we have allowed.”

The approach, he said, must be one of patience, “getting to half time 0-0 and putting ourselves in a position to win it. Things don’t have to be won in the first five minutes, it’s a 90-minute match for a reason,” Hankinson said, “and therefore it’s important that we establish our area of the field that we want to control and defend well in and then posesition well and from that we will create chances to score goals”.

Scoring goals has been an issue for the MBU team and with Allan Ottey out on yellow cards accumulation, the task will be even harder, especially with Dino Williams yet to score in this season after four games played.

“Ottey is a fantastic player and when you lose a player like that obviously it affects things, but there are a lot of ambitious players we have in the group,” he said, singling out Jermaine Woozencroft who he said has been “playing very well for us, particularly in the last league game”. Players like Donovan Carey, Kemar Hylton, and Omar Gordon, who is back in the team after being out since they played in Panama on August 5.

“It’s an ambitious game for players to show their worth. It will be internationally televised, there will be delegations from the JFF, the US ambassador, the mayor of the city and therefore it’s a big visibility game and any player who gets to wear the jersey that night and step on that field has a great obligation to be at his best and play his best.”

With Ottey out this could pave the way for Kashief Brown or Ramone Sibley, both of whom scored against UWI, while Sibley started in the first SCCL game in Panama.

Dwayne Ambusley, Woozencroft, Keniel Kirlew, Carey and Ronaldo Rodney could force their way into the MBU starting team, while the back four is expected to include Ladale Richie and Cordel Simpson both of whom were called up to the last Reggae Boyz team, as well as Orlando McBayne and Dwayne Holmes.