Audley Boyd, Assistant Editor - Sport

Simoes and Gardner

ON THE heels of the mental and physical bruising dealt to them by Grenada in a friendly battle last Tuesday, Jamaica's Reggae Boyz are aiming to make a strong rebound when they bow into the 2010 qualification series for South Africa's World Cup finals, in a clash against lowly Bahamas at 'The Office'.

When they report for work at 7 p.m. in the opening leg of a two-way fixture that unusually, will be played here. Football's world governing body, FIFA, declared Bahamas' football facilities unfit for World Cup qualifiers so what should have rightly been their home game will be played here, next Wednesday at the multi-purpose stadium in Trelawny.

keen expectations

There are keen expectations today that Jamaica's 'ballers, ranked 97th, will be most business-like and display form that runs contrary to their preparation, which has evoked some amount of uncertainty.

In recent practice matches, the Boyz walloped St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) 5-1 and drew with Trinidad and Tobago 1-1 away, but couldn't finish off the business when leading and were pegged back to a 2-2 draw with Soca Warriors here, then going down 1-2 to 143rd ranked Grenada on Tuesday.

Reggae Boyz (from left) Marlon King, Omar Daley and Andy Williams participate in a training session at the National Stadium on Friday. - Photos by LeVaughn Flynn

Besides pride, the Jamaicans took a real battering in that defeat through an injury that deprived the team of its starting striker Ricardo Fuller, who not only scored during that encounter, but is in rich form at the moment, having led Stoke City's charge from the English League