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No letting up on intensity as ‘Golden Jaguars’ keep focus on training pitch
FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Qualifying
By Franklin Wilson
Recapping briefly during one of the quick breaks during yesterday’s training. (Franklin Wilson photo)
GFF SMNT Head Coach Márcio Máximo supervising his charges during yesterday’s training at the GFF National Training Centre, Providence, EBD. (Franklin Wilson photo)
Kaieteur News – Rain or no rain the Senior Men’s National Team (SMNT) training scheduled has continued at the Guyana Football Federation National Training Centre, Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Yesterday, Kaieteur Sport visited the team during their morning training session led by Head Coach Márcio Máximo, his Assistants, Toledo Wilson and Charles ‘Lily’ Pollard, Goalkeeper Coach Ian Deviera along with other National Coaches, Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover, Sampson Gilbert and Vurlon Mills.
Training re-commenced some three weeks ago following Guyana’s first round of qualifying matches in March 2021 held in the Dominican Republic for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in Concacaf which saw the ‘Golden Jaguars’ going down to Trinidad and Tobago 0-3 but rebounded to trounce Bahamas, 4-0 in their second match to close out that round of qualifying.
Now the focus is on the next round which will be contested in June when the Guyanese face host St. Kitts and Nevis away on the 4th with the likely possibility of their home game against Puerto Rico on June 8th also being played in St. Kitts & Nevis owing to the continued challenges being faced by the covid-19 pandemic and Guyana being listed as a level 4 nation.
Máximo shared that despite the bad weather, some 27 players braved the elements to attend the session which was intense.
“Of course you know the guys have been responding well, we trained for around two and a half hours and the guys showed some signs of tiredness towards the end which is natural, but they must be commended for their commitment and intensity. What it continues to prove is that the players understands our philosophy because soon the league comes again, soon we have games for the local players and they should maintain the high intensity then based on what we are doing now.”
He reiterated that the young generation of players deserves the chance to represent the nation with training now taking place four times weekly. “I Think that we are going in the correct way,” he noted.
Noting that you must take the good with the bad as the process of rebuilding the brand continues, the Brazilian tactician reminded that the process of excelling would not be achieved overnight, it will take time with deliberate effort and steps being taken along the way.
“Not only the local group, but even the overseas group needs to be renewed with more young players. As you would have seen, for our first two games we selected about five overseas players with an average age of 22 and we did not do too badly. We need to go this way to guarantee not only the present, but our future as a nation.”
Looking ahead to the two matches, Máximo reminded that both matches would be difficult encounters playing away but believes that Guyana has an equal chance to move on to the next round.
“I saw St. Kitts, they have a lot of foreign players too and use a lot of local players like we are doing here and I think that it would be an interesting game. Always we are positive and optimistic that we can take a good result and go to the last round with a chance to qualify.”
The tactical, physical and mental preparations will continue as the GFF strives towards ensuring that Guyana has the best possible chance of moving forward.
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