Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship Coach Joseph proud of his charges as they take on Cayman Islands tonight

Mar 01, 2020 Sports

By Franklin Wilson

Head Coach of the National Women’s Under-20 Team currently competing at the Concacaf Women’s Under-20 Championship in the Dominican Republic, Ivan Joseph has expressed satisfaction with the efforts of his charges as they continue to blaze the historical trail.

Head Coach Ivan Joseph (3rd left) with his Technical staff in eth Dominican Republic.

The ‘Lady Jags’, having advanced from the group stage of the championship as the second best team behind Mexico, will take on the Cayman Islands in their round-of-16 match tonight from 19:00hrs Guyana time and Coach Joseph, despite not having the services of two of his main players, believes that it gives the other players the opportunity to shine. Kiana Khedoo and Jessica Myers will not be playing.
“The women have put a lot of work into playing and preparing for this match. What everybody is looking as a weekend or couple of weeks of tournament, we’ve been nine or ten months in preparation for this. We’re not just content in making an appearance here; we really believed that we can legitimately get out of pool play and we can win the first round. You don’t want to look to Haiti but we believe that the Cayman Islands team is a winnable game and if we play our best, good things will happen.”
The ladies have proven that they belong with wins against Nicaragua and Puerto Rico which saw them putting together six consecutive wins dating back to last year before they went down to Mexico.
Coach Joseph believes that the team is a competitive one, put together from far and wide and is has expressed kudos to all the players and coaching staff for their efforts and sacrifices. He stated that it is now down to the players to execute the game plan as the coaching staff would have put in the work.
“I think anytime you get a chance to play for the world cup qualifiers it’s a good moment in the programmes history. The progress we’ve made so far is a testament to the process and the administrative support and the infrastructure that both the federation has put in place as well as the grassroots programme. We can see the technical development of the Guyana based players.”
Joseph also shared that one of their goals once they arrived was getting out of the group and that they would have accomplished.
Quarter final play commenced yesterday with the Jamaica trouncing Bermuda 9-1, the USA and Canada romped to similar 6-0 wins over Saint Lucia and Cuba.