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2012 CONCACAF Under-20 Women’s Championship – Cuba …Lady Jags confident of winning group
Driven by their motto, “Belief is the engine that triggers Action and Success”, Guyana’s Under-20 Lady Jags will be heading to Cuba early in the New Year a confident bunch seeking the Group honours and a place in the CONCACAF finals.
While many persons will be enjoying the many delicacies and food at this time of the year, the Lady Jags will be hard at work in Toronto Canada preparing for the Group matches against hosts Cuba on January 7; Trinidad and Tobago January 9 and Costa Rica two days later, the group winner will advance to the finals along with the best second place team of the two groups.
Technical Director (TD) of the Guyana Football Federation’s Women’s Programme, Mark Rodrigues said the purpose of the mini camp in Toronto is to organise and train the twelve players from the Greater Toronto area that are travelling to Cuba on Jan 5, as well as to assess a couple of new players interested in becoming a part of the programme.
Rodrigues noted that the camp will culminate with a game against Erin Mills Eagles Under-17 Girls team, the 2011 Canadian National Club Champions. The game is set for December 28 at the Hershey Sports Complex in Mississauga with kick off is set for 13:30hrs.
Lady Jags show pride and joy after defeating Dominican Republic 2-1 at Uitvlugt Community Centre Ground to win the Group last month.
The players who will be taking part in the Toronto mini-camp and game are; Captains – Justine Rodrigues & Ashlee Savona, Leah Marie Ramalho, Chantal Lynch, Sara Vaughan, Olivia Gonsalves, Elysia Prasad, Esther Frotten, Kailey Leila, Alisha Leila, Tessa Edwards, Martyne Alphonso, newcomers – Deanna Correia, Ashley Yacub and Alexandria Yacub.
Several of the senior players – Donna Carvalhal, Catherine Kobelka, Kayla DeSouza, Briana DeSouza and Alison Heydorn will also be playing in the game to help their junior counterparts. The seniors are challenging the Under-20’s to advance even further than their historic CONCACAF Finals run in Mexico last November.
Rodrigues commented: “As always training time together with the entire squad is always our challenge as a smaller nation with a limited budget, but it makes our accomplishments even more gratifying.”
“We have a much more talented group of U-20 players than our senior counterparts (no disrespect intended), and our expectations are to do equally as well if not better; I believe that we can and the players share that belief as well. Heading into Cuba I still maintain what I’ve been saying all along, that in order to compete with the “big guns” in CONCACAF, we have to be the best in the CFU. Our goal remains the same heading into Cuba and that is to win the group.”
Rodrigues informed that efforts are being made to avert the many challenges the senior team faced while in Cuba in 2010.
“While it is always very important for a coach to deliver clear, concise instructions during a game to his staff and players, it is of greater importance what is done prior to the game in terms of mentally and emotionally preparing the players, controlling their diets, making sure they get the adequate rest required, and reviewing team strategies through “molding”.
The TD informed that this was a system that was implemented in the first round of the Under-20 qualifiers and it proved successful in them winning the group in Guyana.
“We plan on continuing same and expanding on it even further.”
Game schedule: January 7: Guyana vs Cuba at 14:00hrs; January 9: Guyana vs Trinidad & Tobago at 14:00hrs; January 11: Guyana vs Puerto Rico 14:00hrs.
Team Guyana will arrive in Cuba on January 5.
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