HEAD coach Wayne Dover, reflecting on Guyana’s campaign at the just-concluded CONCACAF U-20 Championship Qualifiers in Nicaragua, believes that there’s much to build on going forward for the country’s football programme, while showering his praise for their astounding performance.

“To me, it was a good campaign. It went down to the last game in the group to determine the winners and it was very competitive,” Dover shared upon his return from the Central American country.

Guyana had a exciting run in the qualifiers – whipping Montserrat 6-0 in their opening game, then they returned to out-play St Vincent and the Grenadines 3-0, and then played to an impressive 2-0 win against the US Virgin Islands, before going down hard to Nicaragua in their final game, 0-1.

“A game that started at a very high tempo with both teams battling for supremacy,” Dover said, while being nostalgic about his game against Nicaragua.

“It was Guyana who created the first opening when Osafa Simpson was fed a rich pass into the penalty box. He turned and was about to shoot to goal when he was kicked from the side straight to ankle and went down to the ground, with the referee totally ignoring the incident and waved play on,” Dover recalled.

Dover pointed out that Guyana won the early tactical battle with the game plan employed – to be compact and squeeze the Nicaraguans in the midfield to prevent them time and space on the ball to play a long diagonal pass out to the wings, “which they mastered throughout the earlier group games to score eight of their 14 goals before the encounter with us.” mentor

The National U-20 coach said his side was able neutralise the Nicaraguans from making the play they were most comfortable with, adding, “We took their game away. Our play in the transition was effective where we made penetration to get behind them.

“It was at a moment of defending in midfield in the first half, approximately 20 minutes in, that Jemar Harrigan blocked a pass low down with his thigh and subsequently got red-carded. Guyana played 25+ minutes with 10 men. That moment swung the game in Nicaragua’s favour giving them the upper hand in numbers.”

Dover said that despite the numerical disadvantage “we continued to work hard and defended stoutly to deny them space.  Eventually, the half ended 0-0”.

Recalling the game’s second-half action, Dover revealed that Nicaragua came out and pushed forward relentlessly to try to break Guyana down, and the extra man provided the opportunity that the Spanish-speaking country took to score the only goal of the game.

Guyana continued to fight, Dover said, “pushing higher up the field in search of a goal and during that period, we created two chances that we didn’t capitalise on to pull a draw or record a famous comeback win.”

Dover thanked the GFF for affording him the opportunity to work with the talented group, while also thanking Technical Director Ian Greenwood for his support throughout the campaign.

“I want to thank coach Márcio Máximo for his advice and support to merge many sessions with the seniors, which helped greatly. I want to thank all the technical staff members who worked with the team.

“We were good team behind a great young team. I want to thank the players for the heart showed in all the battle they fought in this campaign,” Dover said.