Kwesi Mugisa, Staff Reporter

Milutinovic

National technical director of football, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, says the fact that Jamaica will be playing in the Lunar New Year Cup later this month in Hong Kong will be more important than any match result from the tournament itself.

The competition will be the first official match in charge of the Reggae Boyz for the 62-year-old Serbia-born Milutinovic, who officially signed on for the nation's top footballing job back in December.

However, despite the fact that a starved public will be clamouring for positive results from the national team which has struggled in recent times, he believes that the experience gathered from the tournament will be the most important thing.

"The tournament will provide me with an opportunity to see these players against a high level of competition," said Milutinovic, who has already stated that patience will be a key part of the team's bid to take part in the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.

" I will be looking out for not just the ones with good skills but also with fight and attitude," he emphasised.

A good mix

"The team is a good mix. We have some good young players and we have made sure to include some older players for the experience," he added.

The competition will see a Jamaica squad, which consists of mostly under-23 players, face the Australia Olympic team, China Olympic team and a Hong Kong League XI.

The Reggae Boyz have failed to beat Australia on two outings so far. The first was a 2-1 loss in a 2003 friendly and the second an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the Socceroos in 2005. The team has never played against Hong Kong or China before.

Jamaica's last international game was a 1-1 draw with Peru at the National Stadium in November last year.