AFTER SUCCESSFULLY hosting St Lucia and Grenada last month, the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) yesterday announced that the country’s senior national team, known as the Golden Jaguars, will now travel to neighbouring Suriname where they will play in an international friendly on April 30. The game is set for the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Paramaribo and Jamaal Shabazz, the Golden Jaguars’ head coach, said the match which starts at 20:00hrs is a challenge he looks forward to, adding “Suriname are a formidable opponent and we have had joyous moments and heart-breaking moments against them.

According to Shabazz, “Matches against the ‘Dutch’ means more than football to Guyana, it’s a huge rivalry that goes way back to both our colonial pasts.”
The composition of the team was not made known by the GFF in their release but Shabazz pointed out: “Against Grenada, we used only five players who started against St Lucia and now we have a great opportunity to widen the pool.”
“When one considers that in the three friendly matches we have played so far this year, seven Under-23s have featured prominently, which shows that we are starting to see depth in the squad. Additionally, games outside of the FIFA match window allow us a great opportunity to keep bodies on the pitch and our eyes on the prize.” Shabazz said.
Chairman of the GFF Normalisation Committee, Clinton Urling, noted that the committee members are pleased with the progress of the senior men’s squad since they assumed the leadership of the GFF and this represents another tangible example of the Federation putting football first and above all.
“It also gives the team adequate practice for our first World Cup Qualifier in June,” Urling added. (Rawle Toney)