‘Golden Jaguars’ refocuses on World Cup Qualifiers

Aug 15, 2012 Sports

– play Bolivia today; Smith & Millington to make debuts

Santa Cruz, Bolivia – The Guyana national football team, ‘Golden Jaguars’ commences its preparation for their away and home in the next phase of CONCACAF (Semis) , 2014 World Cup qualifiers next month against El Salvador on September 7th and 11th (Guyana) with an official FIFA date friendly against CONMEBOL opposition Bolivia today.

Anthony Abrams

This game follows previous engagements in Columbia, Panama and Mexico and National Coach Jamaal Shabazz, highlighted the aim of this friendly as the team looks to devise mechanisms to recover from its two opening defeats to CONCACAF powerhouses Mexico and Costa Rica in June.
“This is our first outing since the Costa Rica awakening and a great opportunity to further our programme in Guyana”, stated Shabazz.
He continued: “We have chosen a younger squad, with more local and Caribbean based players. Bolivia is an opposition who has beaten the best in South America over the years in Bolivia due to clear difficulties any team will find when playing at altitude.”
Shabazz concluded by articulating that he and his technical staff will not be measuring Guyana’s performance by what the final score line looks like.
“We will measure our results based on our performances and our ability to stay in the game against such opposition during the 90 minutes, rather than the final score line”, reasoned Shabazz.
Bolivia is ranked 83rd in world and have qualified for three World Cups in its football history. Those years were 1930, 1954 and 1994. However they did not qualify from the group stage in either tournament.
The Bolivia side colloquially known as La Verde (The Green one), are also using this friendly for their CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier next month against Ecuador.
Meanwhile, veteran Alpha United Striker Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams will start up front in the game that is scheduled to kick-off at 20:00hrs today. The 32-year-old striker will have his work cut out leading a Guyana attack without several of its foreign based stars the likes of Carl Cort, Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson and Captain Christopher Nurse.
However the two new two foreign born players will make their International debuts, 24 year-old defender Jamaal Smith who plays Sweden based Club Syrianska FC and 21 year-old Central midfielder Nick Millington who ply his trade for the Carolina Railhawks in the North American Soccer League.
Smith was born in Canada to Guyanese parents and will become third player from Canada to be recruited over the past six months following the recent additions of Julien Edwards and Taylor Benjamin.
Both Millington and Smith came through the youth ranks, having played for the USA and Canada’s Under-17 teams respectively.
The Jaguars spent most of the day yesterday resting after arriving at the Bugansvilla Hotel at 03:00hrs. They did a 70 minute training session at the Stadium. Despite having only just one session with the full team, Coach Shabazz said he is looking forward to the game.
“We did some work on the team shape in one session. It is not ideal, but the game itself is a practice so we are thankful. We are eager to see what Smith and Millington would bring to the team and more importantly to evaluate our work with the local based players”, added Shabazz.
Seasoned 28 year-old defender John Rodrigues returns to the Captaincy of the team in what will Starting line-up: Richard Reynolds, Colin Nelson, Jamaal Smith, Walter Moore, Dwight Peters, Kayode McKinnon, Nick Millington, Dwain Jacobs, Anthony Abrams and Vurlon Mills.
Subs: Colin Edwards, Kanata Manning, Sheldon Holder, Kestor Jacobs, Treyon Bobb, Daniel Wilson, Andrew Murray.
Management: Coach: Jamaal Shabazz, Assistant Coach: Wayne Dover, Trainer: Americo Falopa, Manager: Rawle Adams, Assistant Manager: Mark Xavier, Equipment Manager: Trevor Burnett, Physio: Dr. Kerry Dollaway.

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