CL FINANCIAL San Juan Jabloteh will take on Jamaican football champions Tivoli Gardens in a Caribbean Club Championship semi-final qualifying match from 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.
The teams meet in a two-match series, with the return leg in Jamaica on November 10.
The other semi-final will see Harbour View of Jamaica opposing Intermeongetapoe of Suriname.
The two semi-final winners will clash on December 8 and 15, from which the champions will qualify for the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup series.
Last year, Jabloteh won the Caribbean Club Championsahip after twice beating Jamaican's Arnett Gardens by 3-1 scorelines to advance 6-2 on aggregate to the final, where they defeated compatriots Vibe CT 105 W. Connection on penalty kicks.
Jabloteh then beat Chicago Fire of the United States 5-2 in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup series, but were eliminated 6-5 on aggregate when losing the return-leg 4-0 in Chicago.
Jabloteh began their Caribbean defence by beating Suriname's Walking Boys 3-1 in Trinidad and drawing the return leg 0-0 in Suriname in their quarter-final series.
Their semi-final opponents Tivoli Gardens are the defending Jamaican National Premier League champions.
Tivoli Gardens are coached by Jamaican Glendon "Admiral" Bailey and are coming off a 5-0 victory over Arlington in a mid-week National Premier League game.
While they are scoring goals, Tivoli may still not be at their sharpest as the Jamaican competition has just started, while the Trinidad and Tobago Pro League is in the closing stages.
Tivoli are currently third in the Jamaican National Premier League, a point behind joint leaders Harbour View and Arnett Gardens, who have nine points.
Jabloteh's English coach Stephen Rutter is confident of a good result against Tivoli and says that if his team return to the form they had shown prior to their crucial loss in the T&T Pro League to North East Stars last week, they should have it.
"We have watched them (Tivoli) twice and we know a lot about them now. We have seen some things about them which we can exploit and we will be looking to do that," said Rutter.
Jabloteh have some good news in that assistant coach/player Angus Eve and fellow midfielder Kerry Baptiste were released from hospital after preliminary medical examinations.
Both were stretchered off during Wednesday night's 3-1 loss to North East Stars, which almost certainly has dethroned them as T&T Pro League champions.
And striker Kerry Noray is on the recovery list after catching a virus, but his strike partner Devon Mitchell is out for the rest of the season after undergoing an operation to repair long-term cartilage damage to his knee.