..to face Indonesia on November 25

GUYANA’s senior Men’s national football team, popularly known as the ‘Golden Jaguars’, will make an historic maiden voyage to the continent of Asia, where they will face Indonesia on Saturday November 25.

The game against Indonesia will be only the second time Guyana will be facing a team from the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), having faced India twice – 1984 and 2011.

However, Wayne Forde, president of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), said that while the trip to the predominantly Muslim country is their first, it will not be their last.

In fact, Forde said that the GFF will also be announcing another engagement against the team from the AFC shortly.

“What you’re seeing is a strategic rolling out of our plan for our senior national programme” Forde told reporters, adding that his administration had spent a considerable amount of time in office building capacity and putting in place, plans for continued development at the youth level; both male and female with the setting up and rolling out of the Academy Training Centres (ATC) across the country.

“The thing is, we will also, very soon, be announcing engagements as far as Africa and with the resumption of the Elite League, it will bring added incentives for our senior players” said Forde.

Both Guyana and Indonesia are ranked at 165 in the world by the sport’s global governing body (FIFA) and Forde said that the GFF will continue to target countries around similar rankings, and, eventually, will face the more prominently ranked teams in other confederations.

Meanwhile, Technical Director of the GFF, Ian Greenwood stated that the engagement against Indonesia “will be a fantastic opportunity for our players to experience a different type of play and a different type of opposition.”

“The GFF Technical Department has been pushing our players to have adaptable skills and to function effectively in any environment, as we are looking to build in 2018 which will be a competitive year,” Greenwood added.

Prior to their journey to Indonesia, Guyana will face Caribbean football powerhouse Trinidad and Tobago on November 14, an official FIFA date, at the Ato Boldon Stadium.

Guyana’s head coach Wayne Dover pointed out that “these games are very important as they will allow for assessment of our team’s calibre and serve as platforms to expose our local talent.”

Dover added, “Should we get a positive result, it will augur well for sponsorship, attract more local players to the fraternity and improve our Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) ranking. All this will serve to create a firm national team that can truly reflect a strong Guyana National Team.”