‘Lady Jags’ coach disappointed at not advancing
Guyana’s Mariam El-Masri (10) and Calaigh Copland (11) trying to make a move on the ‘Bajan’ defence during their scoreless draw at the Leonora Track and Field Centre. (Samuel Maughn photo)
Guyana’s Mariam El-Masri (10) and Calaigh Copland (11) trying to make a move on the ‘Bajan’ defence during their scoreless draw at the Leonora Track and Field Centre. (Samuel Maughn photo)

“SOMETIMES it doesn’t matter how pretty you look; up to that final point you have to make and deliver that final ball, and we were there and we couldn’t deliver it.

“And it’s a shame because I think they had a chance, there were good opportunities,” the words of Dr Ivan Joseph, head coach of Guyana’s senior national football team, following his side’s failure to make it out of Group E of the CONCACAF Caribbean Qualifier tournament.

The ‘Lady Jags’ as they are more popularly called, playing in their final game of the four-team group at the Leonora Track and Field Centre, entered the game needing a win in order to be tied on seven points with eventual group winners, Bermuda, who held a superior goal advantage (+5).

Guyana and Bermuda played an entertaining 2 – 2 draw in a game in which the two teams met for the first time at the senior women’s level. Bermuda secured wins against Barbados (3 – 2) and Suriname (1 – 0), leaving the Lady Jags, who copped a 6 – 1 win over Suriname in their second win, needing a win to send them through.

Against Barbados, Guyana failed to find the net on their many chances and the result at the end of 90 minutes, (0 – 0) meant that Guyana, for the first time since 2010, had failed to reach a CONCACAF tournament.

In April, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) had announced that Canadian, Dr Ivan Joseph, will be the new head coach of the Lady Jags, with the aim of not only resuscitating women’s football, but also to send Guyana back to the tournament they first featured in 2010–the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“A 0-0 draw against Barbados is clearly not what we intended. Hats off to Barbados; they had six in the box, they sat back; we just didn’t have the composure in the final third. We changed formations, we changed formations and they had their athletes at the back,” said Joseph, who holds a PhD in Sport Psychology.

“To me the biggest disappointment, the biggest reason for the loss was our inability to dot the ‘I’ and cross the ‘T’ in the final third. Sometimes the stage is big, and the lights are bright, and you don’t get to deliver your biggest performance in those types of moments. I don’t think we played our best game, and that’s the biggest disappointment, but I think we need these experiences in order to be able to move forward,” Dr. Joseph said.

With dust settled, the Lady Jags will now have to pick up the pieces and move on, as Dr Joseph stated that the aim is to now close the gap between Guyana and the rest of the world with regards to Women’s football, adding “one of the things is I want to have a national team camp here (in Guyana) for all comers. I’m looking to come back some time later in the summer and really identify all the ladies, all the talent.”

“One of the things I’ve heard loud and clear is that people are feeling like they’re not picked up for the team or they’re not getting chosen. And so my challenge is to create a camp experience here that allows people to stay at home and come wherever the grounds are, that we might have and have an audition, so we could have more players in our pool. The next thing after that is that I want to make sure the team stays together and we have another friendly some time before the end of the year.”

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