Forde boasts of Guyana’s potential line-up ahead of CONCACAF Nations League
GFF president Wayne Forde (right) and new Golden Jaguars head coach Michael Johnson. (Adrian Narine photo)
GFF president Wayne Forde (right) and new Golden Jaguars head coach Michael Johnson. (Adrian Narine photo)

… praises new ‘Golden Jaguars’ head coach approach 

DESPITE the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) being reticent about the composition and shortlisted players for the ‘Golden Jaguars’, Wayne Forde, who sits at the helm of football’s local governing body, believes that Guyana will have one of the strongest teams in the Caribbean.

Forde, at the time, was speaking exclusively to Chronicle Sport, regarding Guyana’s participation in the newly-formed Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Nations League, where the GFF’s flagship programme, the senior men’s national team, will open their campaign against Barbados on September 8 at the Leonora Track and Field Facility.

The Nations League is a new centralised men’s national team competition representing a new era of national team football for CONCACAF member associations (MA).

The CONCACAF Nations League begins in September with a one-off qualifying phase, while the group phase, consisting of three-tiered leagues, will kick off in 2019.

The top league will end with a final to crown the Nations League champions and the competition will also serve to unify the qualifying path for the region’s national teams to the newly-expanded Gold Cup.

With matches being played on the FIFA dates between September 2018 and March 2019, Guyana, after their clash with Barbados, will then travel to Turks and Caicos for a meeting between the two countries on October 13, followed by an encounter against French Guiana on November 20, before hosting Belize in March, 2019.

Forde hinted that there are “a couple of new faces on the fringes, but of course it’s not my place to make any premature announcement, but once that’s finalised, we will certainly communicate with the nation.”

According to Forde, the Guyana are “determined to qualify for the Gold Cup (and) everything that we’ve been doing, much of it very quietly, is to strategically position ourselves for that (qualify for the Gold Cup). We have four very important games; it may appear that some of those opponents are minnows, but none are.”

“I think just as we are doing; we are searching the planet to find players that are of the highest quality to come and contribute to the nation, and I’m sure those other countries are doing the same, so we have to anticipate that every game will be challenging,” said Forde.

 SATISFACTORY WORK BY NEW COACH
In June, the GFF announced the appointment of former Jamaica International, Michael Johnson, as the new head coach of the ‘Golden Jaguars’ and Forde said the 44-year-old, who featured for the ‘Reggae Boyz’, Derby County and Birmingham City, has been “doing a tremendous job in terms of strategy, the people that have been put together for this programme. It’s like nothing close to what we would’ve had before in terms of the people coming together, the sports science component; the difference is night and in terms of what we’ve been doing before.”

“So, if we’re serious about meeting these targets, we have to be able to make the investment. Of course it’s challenging for the Federation, because the regrettable part of this is that we’ve been doing a lot of it on our own and it shouldn’t be because this is the nation’s team, but I think that in time, we hope that situation will turn around.

“We are not daunted by this. We accept our responsibility, we understand the environment right now and we’re doing everything possible to give Guyana the chance to qualify for the Gold Cup,” the GFF boss opined.

 NATIONAL TEAM CAMP IN BRAZIL
Meanwhile, under the watchful eyes of coach Johnson, the Golden Jaguars will depart on August 12 for a two-week ‘train and play’ camp in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with a team of mostly local players.

Forde said with the camp happening outside of the FIFA international window, the GFF will not be able to access to the majority of their overseas-based players.

However, he also explained that “national coach is not overly concerned about (not having the overseas players) because most of those guys are playing football, we now have a new coaching structure, so we’re monitoring, so we know what they’re doing.”

“When we will have access to them, when it’s the first game, coach Johnson knows what he’s doing, but at this point he’s more eager to see the local players. He wants to make an assessment with regard to their level of fitness and so 90% of the players going there; I think there are about four international players, but 90% of them are our local boys,” Forde noted.

Meanwhile, Forde also explained the rational in not playing any international friendlies as part of preparation, like some of their up-coming opposition, telling Chronicle Sport, “the reality is, that the Federation has to make some practical decisions based on the resources that it has. We will be going to Brazil for 14 days and we’ll be playing four highly competitive games.”

He further added, “If I were to invest in International friendlies outside of Guyana, I would’ve been setting the Federation back almost $8M, between travel and preparation. We’re going to get four highly competitive games, we’re going to get the team for 14 days with the new coach, so the overall return investment is more beneficial and it also furthers the partnership that we’re now developing with our Brazilian counterparts.”

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