Reggae Boy Fabian Davis - Ricardo Makyn

GORDON WILLIAMS, Contributor

One has seen it all before. The other has no clue what to expect.

One is battle-tested in successful - and failed - Reggae Boyz campaigns. The other's international football experience is as virginal as fresh snow on the Swiss Alps.

But for veteran Fabian Davis and rookie Andre Redwood - and every other Jamaican player who suits up for this evening's game against Switzerland at 6:15 p.m. (local time) in Fort Lauderdale, United States - the goal is equally simple. The match serves as another audition for places in the upcoming "Back to Africa" 2010 World Cup campaign. No one wants to miss out.

"It's an opportunity for me," Davis, a 32-year-old with 83 senior international caps for Jamaica, said flatly from the team's Fort Lauderdale hotel on Tuesday.

The rookie shares the same view.

"I have to make the best of it," said the 26-year-old Redwood, who has never played for Jamaica at any level.

Davis and Redwood were not part of Jamaica's victorious Lunar New Year Cup team last month in Hong Kong, but both are aware that Technical Director Bora Milutinovic is on a talent hunt with an eye fixed on the World Cup qualifiers next year. Their ambitions are clear.

"I'm here to work hard and make the team," said Davis, who currently plays midfield for Tivoli Gardens in the National Premier League.

"I think I will take (my chance) fully," added Redwood, a 6' 3" forward with the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) in KSAFA's Super League.

The level of experience in the Reggae Boyz' 20-man squad for this evening's game, which varies from Davis's wealth to Redwood's dearth, is not the ultimate concern of Milutinovic and his coaching staff. Neither is the final score. For every player at Lockhart Stadium, it is a chance to impress and enhance his claim for a spot in Jamaica's "pool of 30 to 35 players for the World Cup" which, according to assistant Wendell Downswell, should crystallise by year-end.

Up to Tuesday night, Downswell said, little was known of the Swiss team. It is likely Jamaica will retain a 4-4-2 formation, which brought success in Hong Kong, but the starting team and precise tactical approach will not be devised until after Milutinovic and his staff review tapes of their opponents in action and conduct training sessions which were scheduled for yesterday.

Downswell: "They are ready for the assignment." - File

Since the 2006 World Cup, the form of FIFA's 17th ranked team has dipped. Switzerland recently lost to Austria, Brazil and Germany. After giving up no goals in four World Cup games, the Swiss conceded seven against those three.

However, reports indicate the Swiss will field a strong team against 61st-ranked Jamaica. In their squad are veterans from last year's World Cup. Many play in top-flight European leagues, including defenders Phillippe Senderos and Johan Djourou, from English Premier League club Arsenal, and several from Germany's Bundesliga, such as Alexander Frei, Philipp Degen, Ludovic Magnin, Benjamin Huggel, Marco Streller and Christophe Spycher.

The Swiss players are in mid-season fitness and form, and a direct, physical style of play may be expected from them. But Jamaica claim to be prepared as well.

"They are ready for the assignment," Downswell said. "They are on a high from the Lunar Cup."

Elevated, too, are the stakes. For Davis, a familiar face in the Reggae Boyz set-up, this evening's game is pivotal to his international career. Despite his lack of experience, Redwood, an army private with five goals in the Super League, is determined to make an immediate impact with Bora's Boyz as well.

"It is very important to me," he said.

Yet while the cagey Milutinovic may have been initially impressed with Redwood's teamwork and off-the-ball movement during the tryouts, and Davis's technical skills and tactical savvy, like the rest of the Boyz they will have to prove they fit in with the Serb's way.

"It's the simplicity and concentration which are so important to him," Davis said of Milutinovic's approach.

Those two qualities, and the ability to shine when they hit the big stage, will go a long way.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.