PANAMA City, Panama – Golden Jaguars skipper Christopher Ronald Nurse has highlighted the importance that the atmosphere of the respective home crowd support in both El Salvador and Guyana could be, as a deciding factor in the upcoming World Cup qualifiers between the two nations.
Speaking from the team camp in Panama, Nurse, who has played 13 internationals for Guyana since making his debut in 2008, articulated the aforementioned, as the Guyana Football Federation continues to encourage the nation to come out an hour before kick-off for the home game on September 11 at Providence Stadium.
He also touched on a few other topics regarding the national team’s ongoing preparations.
“All the players certainly agree that atmosphere can make the big difference at this level of football; we need the support for our team and our players.
“However regardless of this, we will go out and play our best to make those who support us proud and by God’s grace we will be victorious come the end of 90 minutes,” said Nurse in a passionate tone.
He continued: “We have come a long way as a foot-balling nation to be competing at this level and we are by no means out of our depth. For every experience the team is growing stronger. Defeat is never the desired outcome. However, some of the best lessons are learned in defeat, they make you stronger going forward. The future for the national team is very bright as long as the support and belief remain strong”.
The 28-year-old central midfielder also noted that although he is the national skipper, one of the great things about the team, is that essentially on any given day, all eleven that start a match for the Jaguars can be a leader on the pitch.
“Being the named skipper has no bearing, there are 11 experienced professionals on the field each with his own leadership techniques and with loud voices. This has been one of the team’s strengths – the number of leaders that we have within the squad.
“The fight will always be present amongst this team, as long as we remain unified and together, the task before us is in our own hands. We believe in one another as players and staff,”, stated Nurse.
When asked what he hopes to see accomplished during the camp in Panama and the final preparations when the team arrives in El Salvador before the big night on Friday, Nurse elaborated further by saying: ” We will obviously work on the tactical element, and the disciplines we are to execute as part of the game plan. But it is also a chance to bond as a team, because the more unified and the better the team spirit is in camp, that is what we will carry onto the field. So it is a chance for team-bonding and listening and executing the desired game plan going forward.”
Recently on August 1, Nurse and fellow Guyanese striker Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, while playing for their North American Soccer League (NASL) Puerto Rico Islanders, had a good experience of a sojourn to El Salvador to face the Salvadoran domestic club champions, Isdiro Metapan, in the CONCACAF Champions League.
Nurse concluded his thoughts by noting what he gathered from that game, life at this new NASL club that he joined after previously representing Carolina Railhawks and one of Jaguars new recruits – Nick Millington whom he was team mates with at his former club.
“Puerto Rico Islanders is a fantastic club, the passion of the fans carries to the players and the experiences gained from the CONCACAF Champions League games are invaluable.
“We faced LA Galaxy who had David Beckham, Robbie Kean, Landon Donovan etc, plus we came not too long ago in El Salvador and played Metapan, so we have a idea of what we can expect from the El Salvador style of play.”
“Nick Millington is a very good footballer, he has been unfortunate not to see more first team football, but is still very young and has a very bright football future, both in domestic and international football”