THE Guyana Women’s National Senior Football team (Lady Jags), move into their final mode of preparation for the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals to be held in Cancun, Mexico, from October 28 to November 8 of this year.
The Lady Jags, led by Technical Director Mark Rodrigues and his staff, created history by becoming the first Guyana football team, men or women, to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals which in this case is qualification for the FIFA Women’s Football Finals to be held in Germany next year June.
Guyana will be in Group A along with Mexico, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago while Group B will have United States, Costa Rica, Haiti and Guatemala.
The top two teams of each group will then play in the semifinals and finals of the Gold Cup with the top two advancing to Germany and the third-placed team meeting a team from Europe to determine the third CONCACAF qualifying team for Germany.
The Lady Jags created quite a stir in the Caribbean playing in World Cup qualifiers this year with a record of 6 wins to 2 losses, losing to Trinidad and Tobago then Cuba.
However, they convincingly avenged the defeat to Cuba one week later in Guyana with a 3-1 win to qualify for the Gold Cup finals.
The team, comprising quite a few college players based in the USA and Canada, will have the Toronto-based players start training sessions at the high-profile ANB Futbol Academy under the guidance of Academy Director Bassam Naim, a Brazilian and North American-licensed coach.
The team’s success has been a combination of hard work by the technical staff, the players and support from the Guyana Football Federation and the Women’s Committee, led by Programme Director Colin Baker, in conjunction with the Guyana Sport Development Foundation.
To date approximately US$200 000 has been spent in support of the team with a further $65 000 required for the team to properly prepare for the Gold Cup during October to November, 2010.
The players invited to camp are:
Alisa Leila, Alison Heydorn, Ashlee Savona, Ashley Rodrigues, Briana De Souza, Brittany Persaud, Catherine Kobelka, Collette Hope, Daria Owen, Donna Carvalhal, Elysia Persaud, Jordana Phillips, Justine Rodrigues, Kayla De Souza, Mariam El-Masri, Nikkitta Persaud, Olivia Gonsalves, Ronette Cort, Shondel Archer, Tenyka Francique, Monique Sylvester, Chantal Lynch, Melissia Elie, Roseanna George, Satara Murray, Karina Moore, Tessa Edwards.