‘Lady Jags’ face off with St. Lucia today; inches closer to final round

May 12, 2010 Sports

Guyana’s ‘Lady Jags’ are one game away from qualifying for the final round of the CONCACAF Gold Cup Tournament and standing in the way is St. Lucia whom they face this afternoon at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Mocoya, Trinidad and Tobago.

In their opening game of the group on Monday at the same venue, Guyana whipped the ladies from the Land of the Flying Fish, Barbados 3-0 while the Soca Princesses hammered St. Lucia 6-1 in the feature game.

Today again, the ‘Lady Jags’ will play the first game of a double header against St. Lucia with the Twin Island Republic set to oppose Barbados in the main clash.

The Caribbean Football Union had announced earlier that with CONCACAF expanding the field of its championship from six to eight teams – and the Caribbean’s number of berths from two to three, the CFU will now take the top two finishers from each second-stage round qualifying group (F&G) to play a third league phase to decide its participants.

Guyana’s Technical Director Mark Rodrigues speaking with Kaieteur Sport after the Barbados game on Monday said that while he was happy with the result, he was not pleased with the way his charges executed the game plan.

“We need to be a lot be a lot better, I mean we showed better in the camp in our friendly games against teams that are way stronger than the opponents we faced and I believe that we played down to the level of Barbados, not that they {Barbados} didn’t play hard they tried their best.”

Rodrigues noted that the attacking system employed for the Bajans will also be used against the ladies from St. Lucia who the ‘Lady Jags’ will not under estimate but will be going all out for another win as they continue their quest for CAC and Gold Cup Qualification.

“For St. Lucia we are going to tighten up on the slack areas we observed in our first game, basically to control the pace of the game and to play our game. We have to possess the ball more and look to go forward a lot quicker than we did against the Bajans. I thought that we were playing too many balls back.”

The winners of the respective groups being played in T&T, Puerto Rico as hosts and the best second-place team will qualify for the CAC Games in Mayaguez in July. The other countries who have already qualified for CAC are Guatemala, Costa Rica, Nicaragua and El Salvador. Those in the Gold Cup to date are Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala.

The final game of Group F is expected to be a scorcher with the Soca Princesses set to face the ‘Lady Jags’.

In December last when the GFF hosted the Goodwill tournament, Trinidad were invited but opted out at the last moment. Both the local and North America based Guyanese teams had defeated Suriname.

The Jags proved it was no bluff when they beat Suriname again in stage one of the Qualifying competition at the GCC Ground; St. Vincent and the Grenadines also suffered at the hands of the ‘Lady Jags’ who have kept their unbeaten record intact after 3 games.

The Guyanese have also scored a total of 6 goals and have not conceded any to date. All Guyana the world over are being encouraged to support the ‘Lady Jags’ in whatever way they can even with their prayers as the girls seek to take the Land of Many Waters into uncharted territory in Women’s Football.

A number of parents from Canada are in Trinidad to lend valuable support as they did for the Goodwill tournament and stage one in Guyana. Guyanese Pro League footballers playing in the T&T League were also present at Monday’s game including former National Captain Charles ‘Lily’ Pollard, Shawn Beveney and Walter Moore.

In a brief comment, Pollard said he was very pleased with the level of commitment and discipline the ‘Lady Jags’ continues to show and he wishes them on behalf of all the players in Trinidad, the best of luck. “We are backing our team 100% and we know they will go a far way.” The question was asked of the girls, Can We Do It? And the positive answer was Yes We can.

Team Guyana:

Ashley Rodrigues (Captain), Tenyka Francique (Goalkeeper), Alsion Heydorn, Briana De Souza, Collette Hope, Justine Rodrigues, Kayla De Souza, Brittany Persaud, Mariam El-Masri, Daria Owen, Nikkita Persaud, Ashlee Savona, Donna Carvalhal, Akilah Castello, Olivia Gonsalves, Catherine Kobelka, Jordanna Phillips, Ronette Cort (Reserve GK), Alyssa Budhoo.