The United States' Mario Rodriques Jr (left) has possession of the ball as he tangles with Cuba's Emmanuel Labrada during their CONCACAF Under-17 Final Group B encounter at Catherine Hall Stadium in Montego Bay yesterday. Rodriques scored in the Americans' 3-1 win. - Adrian Frater photo

Western Bureau:

The quarter-final fate of Group B contenders Cuba and Panama will be in the hands of early qualifiers the United States, when action resumes in the 2011 CONCACAF Under-17 Championship this afternoon, with a double-header at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay.

The United States, who secured their quarter-final place on the basis of their first-game 3-1 win against Cuba, will take on Panama in today's feature game at 3 p.m. Panama played to a 0-0 draw against Cuba in their opening game and must get a favourable result to advance ahead of the Cubans.

In the day's opening game, slated for 12:30 p.m., the Costa Rica and El Salvador teams, who secured the two Group A quarter-final places, as a result of the withdrawal of the malaria-afflicted Haitian team, will both be aiming to win today as victory will see them topping the group with a view of avoiding the United States in the quarter-finals.

performance

In their game, the United States are expected to come hard at the Panamanians. Following the team's win against Cuba, coach Wilmer Cabrera was clearly not pleased with the performance of the young Americans and he made it plain that he would be gunning for a much-improved performance against Panama.

"We played badly today and we are not happy," coach Cabrera stated at the time.

"We will be aiming to give a much stronger performance in our second game against Panama."

However, based on their performance against Cuba, in which they wasted a penalty, the Jorge Dely-Valdez-coached Panamians should not be intimidated by the United States. In fact, they are hell-bent on getting even a draw, which would see them advance ahead of Cuba.

"The United States are a strong team but our aim is to keep a clean sheet against them," said coach Dely-Valdez. "However, we will not be sitting back, we are not ruling out going for a win if the opportunity is there."