Digicel Caribbean Championship Group B...1st set of T&T-based 'Golden Jaguars' expected today on chartered flight

Digicel Caribbean Championship Group B…1st set of T&T-based ‘Golden Jaguars’ expected today on chartered flight

Aug 03, 2008 Sports

With the peak season in full flight Kaieteur Sport understands that the Guyana Football Federation has been forced to charter an Air Services flight to bring in some of the Trinidad and Tobago based ‘Golden Jaguars’ who will be battling Dominica and Suriname in group B action of the 2008 Digicel Caribbean Championship, kicking off on Wednesday.

Plans are also for the remaining players to arrive in Guyana by Monday, latest.
Administratively, it has been a disaster as far as planning for this leg is concerned but now is not the time to cast blame but for all concerned to work together to ensure that the games are played and more importantly, Guyana move on to the next round.

K-Sport understands that plans for training the local based Jaguars, was a disaster due to lack of proper coordination.

Following the Beep test a few Saturday’s ago, the short-listed players were involved in one practice session which was conducted by Head Coach Wayne Dover assisted by Kavin Pearce. After this session which took place at the National Park on Sunday July 12, thereafter, nothing has happened with the local based players.
The Trinidad and Tobago based players which include Captain Charles Pollard have been very active with their respective clubs training on a daily basis and playing twice per week.

Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz in an interview with K-Sport did say that because of how the season was running it was difficult for the entire squad to come together way ahead of the group B matches but he was aiming for them to be encamped 5-days before Wednesday’s opening game against Dominica at the Providence Stadium.

As it is now, that plan did not materialise but the games will go ahead. Aruba arrived in Curacao Netherlands Antilles 2 hours before their first match and indeed the first match of the 2008 DCC and held hosts Netherlands Antilles to a 0-0 draw. The Netherlands went on to top the group after defeating Grenada 2-0.
The Guyanese team as far as the make up of the team is concerned would remain very much the same as in the recent past where the majority of the players will be from T&T.

And, while the Guyanese have been victorious against the Dominicans in the past, they cannot take anything for granted this time around as a number of countries have been gaining in strength. Certainly, the match of the group will be against old nemesis Suriname whose confidence will be high following their triumph against the Jaguars in their round two FIFA World Cup Qualifying campaign where they won the 2-game series 3-1 on aggregate.

Despite all that has taken place, fans are eagerly awaiting a keen contest but can’t expect any miracles.
Technical Director Shabazz said he had submitted a list of some 30 players that needed to commence training for the DCC to the GFF about one month ago. It also included the days for the training and everything else needed to facilitate the camp.

“When I got no response I appealed to the GFF’s General Manager of National Teams who agreed to put things in place. The plan was for me to work with the overseas based players and Coach Dover and Pearce to work with the local based players.”

Shabazz who has been at the helm of the Guyana team before its best showing ever in the FIFA Coca Cola rankings said after he received no response from the GFF, he personally made contact with Caribbean Airlines to make bookings for the T&T players to return home.

“This was last week and in this high travel season, it proved very difficult to make magic.”
Shabazz is resolute that it is the job of the General Manager and the GFF to make the necessary arrangements for the players to travel, train and be housed and outfitted for the tournament. “It is the job of the Coaching Staff to prepare the team to win.”

Despite all that has been taking place, Shabazz has been keeping the T&T players together in training using his own means and as he said, he is hoping for the best.

”It is crazy how we are so laid back and lethargic about the team’s preparations and then the so called experts who have absolutely no practical experience wants to talk about whether we should play 3-5-2 or 4-4-2. This is the highest level of insanity. I want to say to Guyana my name is Jamaal not Jesus.”

When questioned about what can be expected from the team, Shabazz’ responded by saying,”In football you can get lucky but ultimately you get the results that you put into a preparation.”

The Dominican team is expected to arrive in Guyana on Monday evening while the Surinamese will arrive over land but the date is till to be confirmed.

K-Sport has also learnt that the hierarchy of Digicel (Guyana) met with some members of the GFF (General Secretary, Treasurer & Organising Secretary) to iron out a number of issues relating to the tournament.
A site visit was also made to the Providence Stadium yesterday and plans seem to be progressing very well.