Jamaica's Young Reggae Boyz made a good start in their quest to advance to the CONCACAF play-off round of the 2009 FIFA Under-20 World Cup qualifiers when they ended 1-1 with arch-rivals Haiti at Victoria Park, Kingstown, St Vincent and Grena-dines yesterday.

In the first game of the evening double-header of what is the final round of the Carib-bean Football Union (CFU) play-offs, Jamaica took the lead in the 55th minute through in-form striker, Dever Orgill.

However, Haiti equalised through Fitznel Lewis at the 87th minute.

"We were pumped up for the game as we all knew the importance of it and wanted to start by setting the tone with a win, but it didn't happen. But we are happy with the result," said Jamaica's coach, Donovan Duckie. "I thought we did our best by containing the Haitian team in the first half as they were moving off the ball well and played well in transition.

"But at half-time, we had a talk and changed our strategy and began to take the game to them and it paid off for us when Dever Orgill scored and gave us the lead. The Haitian team then started pressing in search of an equaliser and we played them on the counter, but this was not enough and they eventually got the equaliser," Duckie stated.

"It is a heartbreaker for us, but in the end, a 1-1 result is a fair result for two quality teams. Congrats to the players," said Duckie, who has been in charge of the team for more than a year.

High expectations

He said he was looking forward to the team's next two encounters with high expectations.

"We know what we can do. We are not thinking about the opponent. We are now getting a chance to the see Dominca and St Vincent (who were playing the later game) and we are planning to be victorious."

The result left Jamaica and Haiti with a point and only the winner of the group is certain of advancing to the CON-CACAF final round play-offs, which will be held in Trinidad and Tobago in March.

The Boyz will next turn their attention to the Dominican Republic, who they will play on Sunday, before rounding off their fixtures on Tuesday against the hosts.