NEW head coach of the country’s senior national men’s football team, Márcio Máximo, said he’s ready to lead the ‘Golden Jaguars’ in the CONCACAF Nations League, as the side begin their campaign tonight in Curacao against Aruba.

The match, which gets on the way at 19:00hrs, will see the two countries face each other for the first time since 1992, when they last played in Suriname during the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Caribbean Cup when Guyana won 3-0.

Máximo, his technical staff and players arrived in Curacao on Monday and have been going through their paces, as they seek to get the chemistry of playing under a new head coach, ahead of two important matches in four days. Guyana will face Jamaica on September 9 at Leonora..

The Brazilian head coach stated that the players have already started to adapt to the new methodology and philosophy. They are settling in well to the tactical and physical training, aiming for a good start in tonight’s game.

According to Máximo, tonight’s game will start a new era of continued building of the national senior programme and would be used to assess the potential of all the players – Guyana and international-based.

“It is our target to prepare the best group for World Cup qualifying, also the next Gold Cup qualifying. Of course we want to do well in this competition but you should understand that this competition we can use to test as many players as possible,” Máximo said.

Matthew Briggs, Neil Danns, Terrell Ondaan, Keanu Marsh-Brown, Akel Clarke, Alex Murray, Quillan Roberts, Kevin Layne, Liam Gordon, Daniel Wilson, Pernell Schultz, Stephen Duke-McKenna and Sheldon Holder are the players returning from Guyana’s historic Gold Cup, while Kelsey Benjamin, Ryan Hackett, Delwin Fraser, Raphael Edwards, Clive Nobrega and Sherwin Skeete are the others coming into the squad.

“We go to the pitch (tonight) with high confidence and we will do our best job. We will do our best to come back with a good result, to play Jamaica on Monday. I also look forward to the full support of everyone in Guyana to back this team,” the Brazilian said.