Guyana has all to play for in Caribbean derby against neighbours T&T today

Jun 26, 2019 Sports

Kansas, USA: Guyana will wrap up its debut appearance at the Concacaf Gold Cup this afternoon when they take on Trinidad and Tobago in a Caribbean derby at the Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City from 17:30hrs (18:30hrs Guyana time).

The Guyana Golden Jag’s hold a training at the match venue in Kansas City yesterday.

A sold-out crowd of 19,500 will be in the house to see the end of Group D action, the Golden
Jaguars are ahead of the Soca Warriors in the standings by goal difference, both nations having lost their two matches to the USA and Panama, respectively.
While Guyana lost 0-4 to the USA and 2-4 to Panama, Trinidad were defeated 0-4 and 0-6 to Panama and the USA. Today’s match-up is not being taken easily by Head Coach Michael Johnson who acknowledged that his charges can only get better as they look forward to the challenge against a close friend but also a close rival.
“It will be an intriguing game that we’ll be ready for,” Johnson noted at yesterday afternoon’s press conference held at the match venue, Children’s Mercy Park.

From (left) the Concacaf Rep, Head Coach Michael Johnson and Defender Matthew Briggs attend the Pre-Match Press Conference.

Accompanying Coach Johnson at the press conference was defender Matthew Briggs who plays with English club side Maldon & Tiptree. Briggs who has been having a good tournament thus far said that the players are looking forward to the clash with T&T: “The players are really up for it, it’s like a local derby for us really and we just want to end the tournament on a high and it’s a game that we are more than capable of winning.”
Today’s match would be Guyana’s 3rd in Concacaf Gold Cup (CGC) history with two losses, scoring 2 goals whilst conceding 8; Neil Danns, the oldest player at age 36 years scoring both the nation’s goals.

For the Twin Island Republic, it would be their 30th match in CGC (15L 7W 38GF 54GC), Jovevin Jones has eight appearances at CGC for them. It will also be T&T’s 26th Group stage match at the CGC. They have now garnered six (6) games without a win and a goal, their last win was against UAE 2-0 in a friendly in 2018.
Johnson shared that Guyana will take away great enjoyment and pride from the tournament: “I think the players would definitely be better for this experience. We have quite a young group and the group has spent the best part of four, five weeks living together so they started to understand more about themselves, more about their teammates and a lot of them have come into camp for the very first time so we’ll be stronger for this.”
Bermuda, like Guyana, has made its debut at the CGC and secured their first points with a 2-0 win over Nicaragua in their final Group B match on Monday. Johnson said he has been following the Bermudians against whom Guyana played a warm up match earlier this month, he noted that it would be great for Guyana to also end this inaugural campaign by recording its first points.

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