'Bora' Milutinovic - file Robert Bailey, Freelance Writer
The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) announced yesterday that the Reggae Boyz will play South Americans Chile in a friendly international match at the National Stadium on Tuesday, June 5.
Crenston Boxhill, president of the JFF, told The Gleaner in a interview yesterday that the Reggae Boyz will play to remain active as they are not scheduled to compete in any tournament until the 2010 World Cup qualifiers begin next year.
The game will also be the second on home soil for technical director Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, whose main goal is to qualify for the Boyz for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
"This game is still part of the familiarisation and selection process of our new technical director, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic," said Boxhill.
Boxhill added that the JFF hasn't named a squad as yet for next month's friendly, but it will consist mainly of local players, similar to the team named for the last match against Panama in March.
"As you know he (Milutinovic) has taken a different approach. He has been travelling the entire length of the island looking at players from various competitions and he has also been using some our well-established and well-known players from abroad," Boxhill said.
"Chile is a good team and they are also ranked above us. We have approached a couple of teams and a couple of teams have agreed to play against us, out of which we chose Chile," Boxhill pointedout.
The Chileans are ranked at 37th in the world rankings and were held to a 0-0 draw by Argentina in their last away match.
Boxhill added: "We chose Chile because we think that would fit into our plans and there are some other games that we are going to be playing shortly and as soon as they are confirmed we will make the announcement."
Commenting on the national Under-17 team's failure to qualify for the World Cup recently, Boxhill stated: "There is nothing to beat a positive and a positive result last Sunday in the our Under-17 World Cup qualifying match against Trinidad and Tobago would've meant a lot more importance than a positive result come the fifth of June."
The Reggae Boyz , who are ranked 68th in the FIFA world rankings, were held to a 0-0 draw by Panama in their last game at the National Stadium. Before then they were beaten 2-0 by Switzerland in Florida on March 22.
