THE Guyana Golden Jaguars held the number one ranked CONCACAF team, Soca Warriors to a respectable 1-1 draw when the two teams collided in an International Friendly match-up on Sunday night at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
A crowd of about 10 000 spectators witnessed the Soca Warriors draw first blood against the local side in the 35th minute when the Trinidad and Tobago league’s top scorer Devon Jorsling found the back of the net then Guyana equalising not long after, compliments of Dwight Peters in the 40th minute.
The teams now jointly share the Kashif and Shanghai-organised President’s Cup Trophy, since it was decided that the game would not be going into extra time and a penalty shootout.
Ranked 76th in the world, Soca Warriors faced a rather tough Guyanese team on the night and assistant coach of the side, Ross Rushell, stated that his team performed ‘a bit under par’.
“Our team’s performance tonight was a bit under par especially in the attacking areas; we threw away a lot of easy chances I thought we should have scored.  It was a tough match given how Guyana played but I think we should have come out winners with the chances we got,” Rushell stated.
On the other hand, Guyana’s head coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover said that the Golden Jaguars’ performance was great, given the short preparation time they had but it was the team’s strength of playing as a unit that caused the game to be so well contested.
In the opening minutes of the match the boys from the twin-island tried attacking the goal from down the centre and on the left flank but with John Rodrigues, Christopher Bourne and captain Howard Lowe, the Trinidadians were quickly denied.
However, they found an opening on the right flank when Denvor Dennis, playing wing back, found it tough to mark the speedy playmaker Lester Peltier who kept comfortably getting past Dennis and crossing in the 18yard.
Jags’ Dwain Jacobs produced quite impressive runs that gave Trinidad’s custodian, Jan Michael Williams, a fairly troublesome time between the uprights.
However, Guyana did nothing noticeable to stop Peltier who was having a wonderful first half and eventually he crossed a lovely ball that found Jorsling in the mouth of the goal and he helped it through the uprights to give his team the lead.
To the appreciation of crowd that was silenced when Guyana were pushed on the back foot, Dennis was replaced and Jacobs occupied the wing back position. He played a major role in Guyana’s equaliser as Rodrigues accurately sent it up the right flank to Jacobs who fired from on top of the 18-yard and was denied, then Peters, keen on support, was there to comfortably tuck the ball into the back of the net.
Trinidad had the entire Guyanese contingent breathing sighs of relief when free kicks given to them near goal ended in Guyana’s as the ball either ricocheted off the crossbar or went straight into the hands of Ronson Williams.
The second half had much of the same as the first but during the 15-minute break the teams identified their faults and corrected them so the game became tighter on either side to score.
Earlier, the Golden Jags Under-20 squad played to a stalemate with Trinidad’s Under-20 team in a battle that could have gone either way with the chances the teams got to score.
These two teams are preparing for the recently launched Digicel Caribbean Cup while the Under-20s get some preparation for the Caribbean Football Union’s (CFU) World Cup preliminary competition.