Golden Jaguars head coach ready to create history

WITH just three days to go before Guyana’s senior Men’s National football team – Golden Jaguars – ‘roar’ against Belize, head coach Michael Johnson believes that based on the extensive preparation, his team is more than ready to create ‘football history’ at the Leonora Track and Field Centre.

A win for Guyana will send them to CONCACAF Gold Cup for the first time, while a victory for Belize will see the Central American island return to the tournament for the first time since 2013.

While ‘Lady Jags’ – the country’s senior women’s team – in 2010 became the first team under the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) banner to play at the CONCACAF showpiece (in Cancun, Mexico), the men’s side had never done so, only coming close (one goal to be exact) in 2007.

Fast forward to present-day and with a revamped Gold Cup qualification process, thanks to CONCACAF’s president Victor Montagliani, who introduced the Nation’s League, Guyana are now 90+ minutes away from booking their tickets for the June 15-July 7 tournament.
“Everybody is in a good place conditioning-wise, now everybody is focussing on the psychological aspect of the game because we all know the magnitude (of the game) so we’re going to discuss it and see where we go from there and just allow the players to focus on getting us to the Gold Cup,” an excited Johnson told reporters at the conclusion of the team’s first training session last Monday.

Johnson named three debutants – Jordan Greenidge, Anthony Jeffrey and forward Keanu Marsh-Brown – in his 23-man squad, while adding some familiar players in a team he said is more than capable of bringing success to the country’s men’s programme.

The former Jamaican International who turned out for the ‘Reggae Boyz’ in the Gold Cup during his illustrious playing career said that this could possibly be the best- assembled National team in recent times, based on the quality of the players.

“We left no stones unturned this time and I’m happy with the way we went about preparing the team, especially with the extensive work we did with the locally based players,” Johnson revealed.

Johnson said that there’s very little room for error and as such, the players selected, who are all seasoned professionals in their respective careers, are ready to go. However, the challenge is getting them to play together and gel perfectly before taking the pitch on Saturday.

In 2017 CONCACAF, Montagliani introduced the Nation’s League, which is a new national team competition platform they had designed to maximise the quality, quantity and frequency of competitive matches for all Member Associations within the confederation. The opportunity presented was perfect for GFF.

The task was artless. They finished in the top ten of the 34-team Nations League qualification tournament and Guyana were in the Gold Cup.

Though the team had beaten Turks and Caicos 8-0 after a disappointing 2-2 home draw against Barbados, a 1-2 away loss to French Guiana placed Guyana in a position where it was mathematically improbable for them to reach the confederation’s marquee event since only the teams finishing in the top 10 will advance.

Luckily for Guyana, it was later revealed that the Carlisle United and former Bury FC forward Hallam Hope, who had scored both goals against Guyana, did not have the proper clearance from FIFA and the English FA to represent Barbados.

In accordance with Articles 55 and 31 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, the BFA lost the match against Guyana by a score of 3-0.

That result pushed the Guyanese men to 8th position behind Curacao (1), Haiti (2), Cuba (3), Canada (4), Jamaica (5) and Martinique (6) who rounded off the top six teams in the tournament, having picked up full points from their three matches. Bermuda (7th) St Kitts and Nevis (9th) and the Dominican Republic are the other teams in the top ten.
Belize, Guyana’s next opponents, are in 13th position with six points (two wins and a loss).
GOLDEN JAGUARS SQUAD:

Goalkeepers – Alex Murray, Sese Norville and Akel Clarke. Defenders – Sam Cox, Elliot Bonds, Terence Vancooten, Reiss Greenidge, Ronayne Marsh-Brown, Walter Moore and Kevin Layne. Midfielders – Neil Danns, Clive Nobrega, Stephen Duke-McKenna, Anthony Jeffrey, Kadell Daniel, Warren Creavalle and Trayon Bobb. Forwards – Sheldon Holder, Gregory Richardson, Pernel Schultz, Marcel Barrington, Emery Welshman and Keanu Marsh-Brown.