– Golden Jaguars anxious for Allianz baptism tonight

By Rawle Toney in Minnesota (compliments of Let’s Bet Sports)

IT all comes down to tonight! The first meeting between Guyana and the USA at the senior level, and the enticing encounter will also mark the first time the Allianz Field (stadium) in St Paul’s Minnesota  will be hosting an International football match.

The game starts at 9.00 pm Minnesota  time; (10:00pm Guyana time.

Guyana and the USA, the CONCACAF Gold Cup Champions, will collide in what pundits are already describing as a win for the ‘Stars and Strips’ but for the Golden Jaguars, they believe than an upset is in the making.

“We will show no fear,” head coach Michael Johnson at the pre-game press conference, as the former Jamaican International stating that Guyana will be heading out on the pitch play for three points.

Johnson reiterated his statement about Guyana’s chances against the USA, telling the room of journalist “we didn’t come this far to not go out on the pitch and give our best, so expect the boys to have a go at the USA.”

Johnson said that he’s cognisant of the fact that the USA are the Gold Cup champions, but, he’s also confident in his group of players to show the footballing-world that Guyana belongs amongst the elite teams in CONCACAF.

In the lead-up to this historic clash against the USA, Guyana faced fellow Gold Cup debutant Bermuda and fell 1 – 0, and then faced Haiti in Costa Rica and fell 3 – 1.

As a matter of fact, in their last 10 matches played, dating back to 2017, the Golden Jaguars were victorious three times and has one draw (1 – 1) which came against Trinidad and Tobago.

For the USA, since their 2 – 1 loss to the Soca Warriors in 2017 which kept them out of the last FIFA World Cup, featured 18 times in International competition, winning six, drawing two and picked up six losses, including their recent back-to-back defeat which came against Venezuela (3 – 0) and Jamaica (1 – 0).

Panama on this other hand have not won a any of their 15 outings since beating Trinidad and Tobago 1 – 0 in a friendly in 2018.

The Panamanians made their maiden qualification for the FIFA World Cup last year but didn’t win any of their three games played against Belgium (3 – 0), England (6 – 1) and Tunisia (2 – 1). They played to a 2 – 2 draw against South Korea and 1 – 1 against Brazil this year.

For Trinidad and Tobago, since being responsible for the for the Red, White and Blue not reaching the World Cup, played nine times over the past year, but only tasted victory once (2-1 against United Arab Emirates).

looking back at the team’s preparation, Johnson said  “for the last few days we’ve had a chance to really batten down and deal with what we expect, as we know the team now and this has allowed us to be more precise in our work and more detailed from an analytic point of view both in and out of possession and how we’re going to approach this game.”

Asked about the team’s composition for tonight’s humdinger,  Johnson noted that “the team’s been picked appropriately for this game and, more likely or not, it could change for the next one; but we feel what we’ve got at our disposal that we are in a very, very good place with hours left before the big game.”

“I think we, by our own professionalism, by our own expectations, are putting more pressure on us internally than probably anybody else. I’ve seen statements that don’t give us a chance, written us off; we won’t score a goal, easy game for America.

But internally, I think there is an inner belief and a real resilience that that’s the case and I think that’s where the pressure comes from us in our own environment, thinking we can do a lot better than the so-called armchair pundits, press, players from America and coaching staff have said.”

Sam Cox, the team’s captain, asked that all of Guyana support the team tonight, pointing out “Just think about it, over 40 million people will be tuned into the game; we’re playing in front of a sold out stadium…we can’t ask for a bigger occasion than this to really introduce ourselves to the world as a footballing-nation. I know the lads are hungry, but I also know that we’re excited to really go out there and show the rest of the world that we belong here and we’re not just here to participate.”

Guyana has been drawn in Group D of the 16-team tournament, and after their game tonight against the USA, the Golden Jaguars will travel to Cleveland where they will take on Panama on June 22, following which, they will face regional rivals Trinidad and Tobago in Kansas City on June 26.

Guyana’s 23-man roster

Goalkeepers (3): Akel Clark (Walking Boyz Company/SUR), Alex Murray (Santos Georgetown), Quillan Roberts (Forge FC/CAN)

Defenders (8): Matthew Briggs (Maldon & Tiptree/ENG), Sam Cox (Hampton & Richmond Borough/ENG), Kadell Daniel (Dover Athletic/ENG), Jordan Dover (Pittsburgh Riverhounds/USA), Liam Gordon (Dagenham & Redbridge/ENG), Kevin Layne (New Amsterdam United), Ronayne Marsh-Brown (Whitehawk/ENG), Terence Vancooten (Stevenage/ENG)

Midfielders (5): Elliot Bonds (Dagenham & Redbridge/ENG), Neil Danns (Bury/ENG), Stephen Duke-McKenna (Bolton Wanderers/ENG), Pernell Schultz (Western Tigers), Daniel Wilson (Western Tigers)

Forwards (6): Callum Harriot (Reading/ENG), Sheldon Holder (Morvant Caledonia United/TRI), Anthony Jeffrey (Dover Athletic/ENG), Keanu Marsh-Brown (Newport County/WAL), Terrel Ondaan (Telstar/NED), Emery Welshman (Forge FC/CAN)