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COCACAF Group ‘E’ Caribbean Qualifiers commence today at Lenora – Lady Jags banking on defence for upset against Bermuda as fan called to support
The Lady Jags is watched by Head Coach Dr Ivan Joseph (right) during a practice session under lights at Leonora.
(From left) Akadih Casttelo (Asst Coach), Natali Nedd (Goalie), Dr Ivan Joseph (Head Coach) & Debra Francis at the Media briefing yesterday.
By Sean Devers
It is said that when night falls the stars come out to shine and this evening at Leonora Track & Field Centre the female stars in the four teams in Group ‘E’ will all hope to shine brightly as CONCACF Qualifiers kicks off with a double header.
Barbados face Suriname in the opening game from 17:00hrs, while Lady Jags and pre-tournament favorites Bermuda known as the Lady Gombey Warriors, do battle in the feature game from 19:30hrs.
The GFF was expected name their team last night due to injury woes to three players in the 26-member Provisional Squad that includes 16 overseas based players.
Although the Lady Jags qualified for the CONCACAF Gold Cup in Mexico which is a world Cup qualifier and the 2016 Olympic Qualifying tournament in Texas, the Guyanese unit will start as underdogs tonight.
If they follow the plans of Head Coach Dr Ivan Joseph who says the strength of the team will be the upper spine, they bank on defence for an upset win tonight.
“Our strength is our Centre Backs, three Centre mid-fielders and our Centre forward, who are all top quality players. If we are good defensively then we are not likely to concede goals,” said Coach Joseph.
This is the first time that Guyana will oppose Lady Gombey Warriors whose head Coach Naquita Robinson, when told about the Jaguars’ plans, said her charges will unlock the home team’s defence when they try to counter, while assistant Coach Vance Brown informed that the best form of defence is offence.
According to Robinson, 15 of the 20-member Bermuda Squad are home grown, while their team is a good mixture of seniors and some of the U-17s who were playing in the CONCACAF U-17 World Cup Qualifiers in Nicaragua.
The players became available since the Qualifiers were suspended last April 22 for security reasons and has been shifted to Florida. Bermuda, Canada, Costa Rica and the United States of America are in Group ‘B’ from June 6-8.
The last time Bermuda’s Women played was in 2014 but Coach Robinson said that most of the team plays together at U-15, U-17 & U-20 levels. Since 2016 a seven year plan has been formulated for the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
“Instead of looking for overseas players the focus is on Youth development and our Football is in a good space. We are very confident of qualifying,” Robinson stated.
The lady Jags Coach says this tournament will be a tough fight since there are good teams with talent involved, adding that winning here would be a short term outcome but the main focus is to build a programme which will see the team reach International standard in the next 12 months.
Guyana has never lost to Suriname but the head Coach reminded that a lot has changed since then.
“I was hired three weeks before we went to Trinidad where eight 16-year olds made their senior debuts. While the investment in youth is very good so many teenagers should not be playing together in any International side,” Dr Joseph pointed out.
The Lady Jags head Coach reiterated that while the players will feel pressure since they are used to qualifying, his job is to mitigate that pressure.
“They have not been together as team for a long time….the team has been dormant and been short of high level Football during that time. So there is where I have to balance realistic expectations of what can do now and what can do in 12 months,” Coach Joseph reminded.
The Canadian pair of Mariam El-Masri and Briana DeSouza (who celebrated her birthday yesterday), are the most experienced players in the team, having played in both the 2010 and 2016 Qualifiers and DeSousa should sure up the back line to prevent Bermuda from scoring.
Both El-Masri, who scored Guyana’s first goal in their Qualifiers in 2010 against Mexico in their 7-2 defeat and DeSousa called on the Guyanese public to pack the venue to its 3,000 capacity to show their support of the home team.
Bermuda Squad: Teyah Lindo, Taznae Fubler, Chelsea Harvey, Micah Pond, Symira Lowe Darrell, Akeyla Furbert, Khyla Brangman, Precious Smith, Ember Butterfield, Eva Frazzoni, Deshae Darrell, Zakiya Durham, Victoria Davis, Jade Stewart, Trinae Edwards, Rayni Maybury, Jadae Steede Hill, Keunna Dill, K’shaela Burch Waldron, Marley Christian, Naquita Robinson (Head Coach), Vance Brown (Assistant Coach), Dashun Cooper (Goalkeeper Coach).
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