Golden Jaguars and Guatemala face off at Providence Stadium
GUYANA’S Golden Jaguars who are ranked 91st in the FIFA world rankings, will be taking on the 84th ranked Guatemala, one of the best football teams in Central America, in a friendly encounter from 20:00hrs at the Guyana National Stadium on Wednesday.
As most fans are aware, the team just returned from playing four friendly matches in the Caribbean in which mainly younger local-based players were tested under coach Jamaal Shabazz’s newly devised ‘two-tier’ approach for development of the national side.
Wednesday’s massive encounter therefore will be the Jaguars’ first encounter of 2012 with a highly ranked team after qualifying for the third round of the FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifiers in which they will face Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador later this year.
The significance of the national side reaching this round is also highlighted by the fact that it is an official FIFA date for 2012 in which 37 other international friendlies will also be played around the world, which means that the Golden Jaguars are playing in the big leagues of world football by FIFA standards.
Hence the Jaguars are expected to have a very strong line-up with returning overseas-based players such as the charismatic captain Chris Nurse of North American Soccer League (NASL) side Carolina Railhawks.
The goal-scoring heroes from the now historical night, colloquially dubbed ‘11-11-11’ when Guyana toppled the Soca Warriors were Leon Cort and Ricky Shakes who play in England, along with defender John Paul “JP” Rodrigues of NASL side Tampa Bay Rowdies. He is returning from injury.
Notable local-based players such as Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams, Kayode McKinnon and young Trayon Bobb who received great plaudits from Shabazz for his efforts during the four-game Caribbean tour are some of the names expected to line up for the national side’s 20-man squad.
Guatemala, known as the ‘La Azul y Blanco’ (the blue and white) are also in the preparation for their third-round qualifying matches against the United States, Jamaica and Antigua and Barbuda, later this year.
They recently began their calendar of friendly internationals for this year, going under to Paraguay 2-1 in Paraguay last Wednesday, but are expected to be sending a strong and very experienced team to oppose the Guyanese.
Players such as their all-time leading goal-scorer Carlos Ruiz who has years of experience playing in Major League Soccer (MLS) for teams such as LA Galaxy and FC Dallas, mid-field general Marco Papa of Chicago Fire (MLS) and their most capped player Guillermo Ramirez are expected to feature.
The match will be very exciting since the Guatemalan team will be coming to try to prove their dominance over their South American counterparts, who have created history with their third round qualification.
Let’s get our preparation for that Mexico game off to the perfect start with a victory while simultaneously sending Guatemala back home with their second defeat in a week.
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) urges the thousands of fans who turned out last November and played the role of ‘12th man’ to perfection when Jaguars eliminated Trinidad and Tobago, to come out again and make the venue ‘Fortress Providence’ and at the same time a very intimidating atmosphere for our opposition.