Howard Walker, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Under-17 squad relaxes at the AlhambraInn during a special luncheon in its honour earlioer this week. - Contributed

JAMAICA'S UNDER-17 foot-ballers kick off their quest for World Cup glory against Canada at 7:00 tonight at the National Stadium, confident of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup in South Korea in August.

In the first encounter, Costa Rica take on Trinidad and Tobago at 5:00 as the five-team CONCACAF Group B qualifiers get underway.

Jamaica will compete with the United States, Costa Rica, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago of which the top three teams will advance to the Cup.

Crenston Boxhill, president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF), said this is one of the best prepared national teams and he is confident it will qualify.

Said Boxhill: "I can safely say that this squad is one of the better prepared national teams for a very, very long time. They have been together for the past two years.

"When you take that into consideration, I am quite confident we should do well. The fact that we have done all this intensive preparation, I am quite confident this team will go all the way," said Boxhill.

Pressure

The Boxhill administration, which came to office in 2003, has seen at least four teams fail to qualify for a World Cup.

When quizzed if there is added pressure for this team to qualify, Boxhill told The Gleaner, "I am not sure if pressure is the right word.

"We defeated the world cham-pions, Mexico, recently, so I am expecting good things from them and are optimistic that they will do well. We have played at least four of the teams already and have done reasonably well against them.

"The closer you get to the beginning of the competition, the butterflies start to come because it is important that the team do well," he said.

The young Reggae Boyz defea-ted Canada 3-0 last year in the Caribbean Youth Cup and should continue their dominance over them.

While Jamaica have had some positive results coming into this tournament, the same can't be said of Canada. They lost almost every game they playedand could be low on confidence.

Costa Rica, who finished first in the Central American tournament, should also get the better of Trinidad and Tobago in the opening game.

Admission to the National Stadium will be $400 while students with ID will pay $200 during the eight-day tournament.