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Letter to the Sports Editor Golden Jaguars first round exit –An end to 2018 World Cup dream

Sep 10, 2014 Sports

Dear Sir,
With a goalless stalemate in their opening encounter against Dominica, followed by a 0-2 loss to St. Lucia and a similar margin of defeat by hosts St. Kitts & Nevis, the unbeaten group winners, Guyana’s new look senior national men’s team under the stewardship of head coach Denzil “Hunky Brains” Thompson, who had publicly advocated “the team is being prepared for the 2018 World Cup”, maybe, in all due fairness to the individual, his statement was incomplete since he didn’t state the World Cup preliminaries.
Meanwhile, with Guyana securing the third spot behind St. Kitts & Nevis and St. Lucia, but ahead of Dominica who scored a goal in their 3 matches, was also winless like the Jaguars, both with 1 point apiece from a draw along with 2 losses. So, realistically Guyana would be the worst of the third place qualifiers, with 1 point and a goal difference of -4, Thus, ruling out any possibility of advancing to the next round as one of the best third place qualifiers.
That there is no longer a roar from the Jaguars, but rather “a whimper of a domesticated house cat, meow ………” and was also scoreless, a historical first for a local senior men’s team!
In the final analysis, “failing to prepare, is preparing to fail, while with a lack of vision, a nation perishes”, so, with the absence of an international friendly for the nation’s senior male team under the stewardship of Matthias for a period of 16 months, Editor I’m inclined to ask publicly of course; Under which sun with a significant number of rookies, compounded by 10 days of preparation, did the GFF envisage the senior male team qualifying for the next round, in the ongoing CFU Championship?
Moreover, when only 2 Associations out of a total of 8; have senior competitions in progress and the GFF absolutely nothing! Also, it must be noted that from the under -19 to under-23, the last of the age-limit competitions, the GFF has nothing tangible to show, in relation to coordinating, likewise a significant number of associations.
However, with Germany securing their 4th World Cup title, in neighbouring Brazil, recently, an 8-10 year development plan was in place. So, how can “Hunky Brains” hope to build a team for the 2018 World Cup in 4 years? Is this a daylight, or night-time dream? What would happen when he awakes, from sub-consciousness to consciousness? Suffice it to say that apart from qualifying for the last of the age-limit World Cups finals-under-20.
Qualification for the Olympics (under -23) and the Gold Cup (of which this CFU Tournament is the precursor) paves the way for a senior World Cup qualification. Within CFU, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago are typical examples having previously qualified for youth (age-limit) World Cups, in the past, along with the Gold Cup ahead of a senior World Cup, while not forgoing playing numerous international friendlies!
Editor, what local football needs is a total metamorphosis, albeit a total rebirth, in addition to administrators and coaches with vision, definitely not (pro) vision. “Hunky Brains” needs to be honest with himself and pursue Goalkeeping/ Training courses, in pursuit of becoming a certified CONCACAF/CFU instructor, since “Brawns and Brains” was applied with the senior national team. Whereas a stop gap measure for selection, at least 40-50% of the squad should have emanated from the national club champions, Alpha United, due to their present activity and cohesiveness. This in essence would have been a combination of experience and youth. Would “Hunky Brains” with this historical failure still be considered as the senior national team head coach? Or would he do the honourable thing and resign forthwith? Wouldn’t have it been more prudent to select both Trayon Bobb and Pernell Schultz (under-23’s) with semi/professional experience abroad? Instead of an ageing defender in Walter Moore, no disrespect meant, wherein creativity at midfield and prolific goalscoring was needed.
Respectfully yours,
Lester Sealey

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