NINETEEN-year-old full-back Terence Vancooten, who plays for Stevenage Football Club in the English Football League Two, along with Nicholas Peters (Mabaruma, Region 1) and Frank Parks (Guyana Rush Saints FC, Region 9), will make his international debut after being named in coach Wayne Dover’s 23-man squad to tackle Grenada on Saturday at the Kirani James Stadium in St George’s.

Seventeen overseas-based players were called by Dover, who said the squad represents “mixture of youth and experience and is a good sign of the changing of the guards in the not-too-distant future especially with the addition of new players.”
In preparation for the match, Dover had shortlisted 26 local-based players for a period of encampment, but in the case of Peters and Frank, the two, according to the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), were selected based on their performance at the just-concluded Indigenous Heritage Games and the Charity Match involving a GFF President’s XI and an Indigenous All-Stars which was played last Sunday.

The Hinterland players, Dover said, “warranted their immediate call-up” based on the skills displayed, adding, “Parks is no stranger to the national set-up. He played with the junior team and demonstrated the potential to be a top player. He has a football background as all of his siblings represented Guyana and were outstanding.

Peters is a solid defender who showed he can handle players, the likes of Gregory Richardson. He showed all the attributes that a central defender has to possess.”
Walter Moore, who plays with FF Jaro in the Finnish professional league, will be making a return to the Golden Jaguars from retirement after signalling his desire to retire last October following the Caribbean Cup game.

Among those included too is 19-year-old goalkeeper Kai McKenzie-Lyle (Barnet FC) who made his debut almost one year ago in the Caribbean Cup game against Suriname in Paramaribo. He also played in the game against Jamaica in Guyana but missed the game against Martinique.

Neil Danns, 34, who made his international debut for the Golden Jaguars against Grenada in 2015, will make his return to the team after missing the Caribbean Cup. In his four outings for Guyana, the midfield player Danns scored three goals and is considered an ‘important’ piece for the team.

Defender Warren Creavalle who features in the USA’s Major League Soccer (MLS) with the Philadelphia Union, will also be joining the team for another outing with the Golden Jaguars. So too is Englishman Samuel Cox, who usually wears the captain’s armband.
Technical Director of the GFF, Ian Greenwood, believes the composition of the squad shows “how serious the GFF is taking this fixture and using it as a building block for 2018 when the CONCACAF League of Nations is officially launched.”

The Golden Jaguars begin their encampment in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday and will travel to Grenada tomorrow in preparation for the International Friendly on Saturday.
SQUAD: Kai McKenzie-Lyle, Andrew Durant (GK), Adrian Butters, Samuel Cox, Gregory Richardson, Neil Danns, Warren Creavalle, Nicholas Peters, Frank Parks, Jake Newton, Christopher Bourne, Emery Welshman, Shaquille Agard, Curtez Kellman, Anthony Benfield, Maliek De Freitus, Jeremey Garrett, Walter Moore, Terence Vancooten, Cashion London, Sheldon Holder, Ralph Parris and Brandon Beresford.

Dover will have former National captain Charles Pollard as his assistant, while Eon DeVeira will serve as the goalkeeper coach, Lyndon France – physical trainer Denzil Hernandez – physiotherapist Trevor Burnett and the team’s manager is Rawle Adams.