More offensive approach for return clash – Shabazz

Jun 16, 2008 Sports

Jerome and Brown expected to join squad, Bishop’s back

By Franklin Wilson
Following a tough loss to old rivals Suriname in the first game of their 2nd round FIFA World Cup Qualifying match on Saturday last at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Parimaribo, Technical Director of the Golden Jaguars Jamaal Shabazz said that the approach come Sunday, will be very aggressive.

The first leg encounter he said was a tough one for the Guyanese as the condition of the field was not the best but the host team was at home since they have been utilising it for at least the past two months.

The ‘Golden Jaguars’ and Technical staff, President of the Guyana Football Federation Colin Klass along with dozens of supporters returned to Guyana yesterday overland and were met at Moleson Creek by officials of Digicel, Sponsor of the GFF and the Pepsi Girls.

And while fans might be worried about the continued progress of their Jaguars in the qualifying competition, Shabazz said that being down in a tournament is nothing new to Guyana and having a bunch of fighting and determined players makes the mission to qualify for South Africa 2010, reachable.

The Newton brothers, Howard and Jake, who were unable to play in the first leg encounter due to Passport issues, will be able to don national colors come Sunday in the return game since their documents are expected to be in Guyana by Wednesday.

It was also disclosed that preliminary talks with former national midfielder Jermaine Brown who is now based in Suriname have been going well.

“He (Brown) is expected to join the squad, Shawn Bishop is alright and will be back as well so we are looking forward to a much improved performance and we can see lots of opportunities for us to go to the next level.”

Kaieteur Sport has also learnt that USA based striker Randolph Jerome is also expected to join the squad by mid week.

The Technical Director is hoping to have at least 24 players in the camp so that they can play 11 vs 11 games but what is critical for him is training venues.

“Getting facilities to train that will be close to the match venue being able to train at the Stadium at least 3 times before Sunday is important for us. Because we saw a Suriname team that trained at least 2 months on their surface and while we struggled there they were at home. The ball that they used is a ball that they trained with for 2 months, we can’t expect to use FIFA inspected balls and then play with FIFA approved balls.”

The T&T born TD who has enhanced the status of Guyana’s football since coming on board believes that simple things needs to be done this week while paying lots of attention to detail.

“We’ve got to try and make the players and the staff as comfortable as possible so that they can focus on the job at hand.”

Again, he stated that he is making no excuses for the 1-0 loss and is taking full responsibility for the result but affirmed that they had to focus on many other things other than football on the field.

“The time has come that we must recognize how important this game on Sunday is to us and everybody must put their best foot forward. The attitude of people when the rain set up that we can’t train that will just totally frustrate you because not once while we were in Trinidad were we denied the chance to train anywhere and we trained on some of the best facilities. So I hope that we are afforded the same courtesy here in Guyana, which is our home.”

Players will be returning to camp tomorrow evening for training which would recommence on Wednesday with sessions in the morning and afternoon.

Similar sessions would be held on

Thursday while one session is set for Friday and Saturday with the game set for Sunday at the National Stadium at Providence.