… to play two warm-up matches against hosts

THE Guyana Senior Women’s national team will travel to Puerto Rico for two friendly matches and an encampment in October as the squad accelerates its preparation for the initial round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers in November.

The Lady Jags squad will participate in a week-long training camp in the U.S. territory, arriving on October 18 and departing on October 24.

Practice matches against the hosts are scheduled for October 20 and October 23.

Guyana have been drawn in Group F of the CONCACAF W Championship qualifiers with Trinidad and Tobago, Nicaragua, Turks and Caicos and Dominica.

The winner of the group will join the five other qualification group winners and automatic qualifiers, Canada and the U.S., at the 2022 CONCACAF W Championship which acts as the region’s gateway to the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“We are in a tough pool that we must win in order to get to the next round of the World Cup qualifiers. There are no easy games moving forward and every goal for and against counts,” said Lady Jags head coach Ivan Joseph.

According to Joseph, they are “looking forward to the training camp and the exhibition games versus Puerto Rico. The Lady Jags have not been together for over three years, and it will take a while for us to build our style of play and get on the same page in order to give ourselves a chance to succeed”.

A GFF release said domestic-based players have been in training for several months at the Federation’s National Training Centre in Providence, under the guidance of coach Akilah Castello.

The squad in Puerto Rico is expected to comprise a mix of Guyana-based talent and players based in North America and Europe.

Guyana will kick off the journey to the FIFA World Cup with a home match against Dominica and an away tie in Turks and Caicos in November.
The group will conclude in April 2022.