–Golden jaguars skipper rubbishes opinions on team’s composition

GUYANA booked their first trip to the CONCACAF Gold Cup (men’s tournament) following a 2 – 1 win over Belize on Saturday night at the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora.

Approximately 5,000 football-crazed fans crammed into the ‘West Side’ venue as Neil Danns scored in the 16th minute when he converted from the penalty spot, while Emery Welshman’s goal in the 43rd minute was seen as the ‘game-winner’ since Belize’s Elroy Kuylen equalized in the 25th minute.

However, despite the team’s historic achievement, some fans took to social media to voice their concerns on the team’s composition of mostly overseas-based players– a disquiet that didn’t sit well with Captain Samuel Cox– who was emotional in the post-game press conference when voicing his displeasure at the fans’ view.

With the exception of Gregory Richardson, Sese Norville, Alex Murray, Kevin Layne, Trayon Bobb and Pernel Schultz, Johnson’s team is made up of players who compete in the top tier of football in the USA (Warren Creavalle), Canada (Emery Welshman), Trinidad and Tobago (Sheldon Holder), Suriname (Akel Clarke), Finland (Walter Moore), Norway (Reiss Greenidge) and England (Cox, Callum Harriott, Neil Danns, Keanu Marsh-brown, Ronayne Marsh-Brown, Stephen Duke-McKenna, Anthony Jeffrey, Kadell Daniel, Marcel Barrington, Elliot Bonds, and Terence Vancooten).

“I’ve seen the ups, I’ve seen the downs, I’ve seen things that people don’t even know about, but I’ll tell you what, every single player from behind the scenes worked their socks off and we have made history! It has never been done in this country before,” a passionate Cox told the room full of reporters.

The UK-based player, who has been part of the programme for the past five years, was vociferous in stressing “we are the greatest team to achieve something ever in this country, so we need to appreciate that, whether it’s foreign-based, local-based, I don’t care, it doesn’t matter because we’re all one – one country, one team – one dream – simple as that!”

The side, according to many pundits, was labelled as one of the best-composed sides ever assembled in Guyana in the last decade with Callum Harriott, who competes in the English Football League Championship with Reading FC, League Two side Newport County’s Keanu Marsh-Brown, former ‘Gunners’ Anthony Jeffrey, and Reiss Greenidge being the debutants.

Meanwhile, upon his arrival last year, Head Coach Michael Johnson stated that his stint as being at the helm of the Golden Jaguars will be a failure if he didn’t help Guyana to advance to the confederation’s premier football tournament.

Johnson listed players such as Harriott and Keanu Marsh-Brown as ‘pivotal’ to the country’s continued success, telling Chronicle Sport that “these players are playing at the top end of the spectrum in England and you can’t place a value to what they bring to this team.”

Danns was also showered with praises by Johnson who called the Bury FC midfield maestro the ‘backbone’ of the Golden Jaguars.

“Within the training camp, the standard in the training was the best for me since I’ve been here, but not just the standard for the foreign-based players, but also the locally-based players,” Johnson reflected.

Emotionally overjoyed, Johnson said that the team will take a couple of days to soak in their achievement, but will head back to the drawing board with the aim of being competitive and giving a good account of themselves at the June 15 – July 7 CONCACAF tournament.

THE GOLDEN JAGUARS SQUAD THAT CREATED HISTORY: Goalkeepers – Alex Murray, Sese Norville and Akel Clarke.

Defenders – Sam Cox, Elliot Bonds, Terence Vancooten, Reiss Greenidge, Ronayne Marsh-Brown, Walter Moore and Kevin Layne.

Midfield – Neil Danns, Stephen Duke-McKenna, Anthony Jeffrey, Kadell Daniel, Warren Creavalle and Trayon Bobb.

Forwards – Sheldon Holder, Gregory Richardson, Pernel Schultz, Callum Harriott, Marcel Barrington, Emery Welshman and Keanu Marsh-Brown.