Despite winning their last five matches against Honduras, Reggae Boyz Head Coach Steve McLaren is bracing for a tough encounter when the Jamaicans play away to the Central Americans today in their second match in Group A of the Concacaf Nations League.

The match, which will be played at the Estadio Nacional Chelato Ucles at 9:00 pm (Jamaica time), will pit the Reggae Boyz against a team that they have generally enjoyed success against in recent times, winning their last five matches dating back to 2017 and losing only two of their last 10 (7 wins, 1 draw, 2 losses). When the teams last met on September 23rd last year in the Nations League, the Reggae Boyz secured a 1-0 victory over their opponents at home.

However, the Jamaicans have always found the Hondurans to be tough opponents with only one goal separating the teams in all but one of those seven wins.

“They are a very good team, possession based, they like to take the ball in transition and are strong defensively,” McClaren assessed during a press conference on Monday.

The Boyz are coming off a surprising 0-0 draw against 10-men Cuba at the National Stadium on Friday, a match in which the Jamaicans dominated, but failed to score despite registering 21 shots towards goals against the lowly-ranked ranked Cubans in what was McClaren’ first game in charge of the national side since his appointment on July 31.

While the Jamaicans failed to find their scoring touch, Hondurans will enter today’s encounter oozing with confidence after thrashed Trinidad and Tobago 4-0 in their opening match, also on Friday.

McClaren noted that he is well aware of the strengths of the Honduran team and is anticipating a difficult assignment.

“They are on five games unbeaten and it doesn’t surprise me. I watched the coach’s first game against Jamaica and that was in Jamaica and I thought the team played very well then and that was his [Reinaldo Rueda] first game,” he said.

“He has had over a year with them and you can see what he started and how they have developed and they have improved a lot.”

The 63-year-old McClaren, who spent the last seasons as an assistant coach of English Premier League giants Manchester United, however, made it clear that the Reggae Boyz are not daunted by the task ahead of them and are prepared to do whatever it takes to collect all three points today.

“Coming here for us is a big challenge and a huge challenge and one in which I expect my players to accept and to deal with and to get the result that we want,” McLaren said.

“We need points and this is a step towards qualification for the quarter-finals of the Nations League and this is our target. We have played one game and we played very well, but we didn’t get the result,” he added. “We need to really play well tomorrow [today] and fight as a team and to get a result and put us back in contention for the quarter-finals.”

Reggae Boyz defender Amari’i Bell, who plies his trade for Luton in the English League Championships, said he and his teammates are ready and raring to go.

“We are confident because we had a good game against Cuba and so we are here now ready to come with force,” said Bell.

The Reggae Boyz are fourth in the group, with Honduras and Nicaragua in first and second, respectively, on three points each.

Only the top two teams will advance to the quarter-finals of the Nations League.