Guyana face St. Lucia in opening game; St. Vincent to host Group B

Sep 02, 2010 Sports

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By Franklin Wilson

The Golden Jaguars will open their quest to win the 2010 Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) Championship against fellow Group C team St. Lucia on Wednesday October 13 at the Andre Kamperven Stadium, Parimaribo, Suriname.
Host Suriname and the Netherlands Antilles, the other teams in the group will lock horns in the feature game at 21:00hrs on the same date.
The Golden Jaguars will be aiming to go all the way in this year’s edition and preparations in earnest for next month’s competition will kick off later this month with the encampment of the squad ahead of the International friendly against Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors at the National Stadium Providence, Sunday September 26.
The Guyanese had crashed out at the second stage of the previous DCC but will be seeking to repeat and better the phenomenal run they had in the 2006/7 edition of the competition when they were the only team to have won their two preliminary groups outright, scoring 23 goals and giving up only 2 before advancing to the finals in Trinidad and Tobago. Losing to St. Vincent & The Grenadines denied the Golden Jaguars the opportunity of making the grid for the CONCACAF Gold Cup and they are undoubtedly hoping to go all the way this year to emulate the Lady Jags who have qualified for the female Gold Cup set for Mexico next month.

The clash of group C will be the Guyana/Suriname match up on Sunday October 17. The Guyanese with a young team defeated their old nemesis Suriname 1-0 in the inaugural Suriname Independence Cup last November. Guyana also got past French Guiana and the Netherlands Antilles by similar margins to win the tournament.
This time around, the Golden Jaguars will be at full strength with a number of overseas based players expected to make the team to be coached by Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover.
Quite a few of these players were on show in England on August 8 when the Guyana Football Federation All Stars drew with Cray Wanderers 1-1 in London and will be here for the Trinidad game this month end also.
Among them are Christopher Bourne, Howard Newton, Alinani Mounter, Fabian Brown; Miami based John Rodrigues along with T&T based Walter Moore and Shawn Beveney. The Technical Committee of the GFF is expected to release shortly the players making the initial squad.
The DCC will see 23 of the best senior teams in the Caribbean matching skills between October 2 and December 5, 2010.
The Tournament, which will be played in 8 venues across the region, kicks off with 15 teams in Stage I. The best six teams of the first stage qualify to the second round where they join DCC 2008 semifinalists, Grenada, Cuba and Guadeloupe and three of 2008’s top-ranked teams; Haiti, Trinidad & Tobago and Antigua & Barbuda.
The Tournament Finals will be held in Martinique where the qualified teams will meet the host’s national team or 2008’s defending champion, Jamaica in a group stage before moving on to the Semifinals and Final.
Meanwhile, St. Vincent and the Grenadines will play host to Group B in the first round, facing Barbados, Montserrat and St. Kitts and Nevis starting October 6.
Group B, which will be played in Victoria Park in Kingstown, had been the only first-round group without a venue or dates when the schedule was revamped on August 12. In addition, Group A will begin four days earlier than previously scheduled on October 2, and end on October 6.
The change was required due to “several complications related to a congested event schedules in the region both sport and culturally related,” CFU General Secretary Angenie Kanhai said.

Digicel Caribbean Cup 2010 Fixtures
Group Date Time Team A vs Team B
A 2/10/2010 18:00 St. Martin Cayman Islands
A 2/10/2010 20:00 Puerto Rico Anguilla
A 4/10/2010 18:00 Cayman Islands Anguilla
A 4/10/2010 20:00 Puerto Rico St. Martin
A 6/10/2010 18:00 Anguilla St. Martin
A 6/10/2010 20:00 Puerto Rico Cayman Islands
Group Date Time Team A vs Team B
B 6/10/2010 TBA Barbados St. Kitts/Nevis
B 6/10/2010 TBA St. Vincent Montserrat
B 8/10/2010 TBA Montserrat Barbados
B 8/10/2010 TBA St. Vincent St. Kitts/Nevis
B 10/10/2010 TBA St. Kitts/Nevis Montserrat
B 10/10/2010 TBA St. Vincent Barbados
Group Date Time Team A vs Team B
C 13/10/2010 19:00 Guyana St. Lucia
C 13/10/2010 21:00 Suriname Netherland Antilles
C 15/10/2010 19:00 Netherland Antilles Guyana
C 15/10/2010 21:00 Suriname St. Lucia
C 17/10/2010 17:00 St. Lucia Netherland Antilles
C 17/10/2010 19:00 Suriname Guyana
Group Date Time Team A vs Team B
D 13/10/2010 15:00 Dominican Republic BVI
D 15/10/2010 15:00 BVI Dominica
D 17/10/2010 15:00 Dominican Republic Dominica

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