Latest update January 17th, 2025 6:30 AM
‘Humdrum’ performance from Golden Jaguars in final Nations League match against Montserrat
… Guyana, Montserrat play to goalless draw in Bridgetown
By Rawle Toney
Kaieteur News – The Golden Jaguars ended their 2022/2023 Nations League campaign with a goalless draw against Montserrat last evening at Wildey Turf inside the Sir Garfield Sobers Sports Complex in Bridgetown, Barbados.
The two sides played to a less-than-entertaining stalemate and will share points, as the Golden Jaguars shifts their attention to the CONCACAF Gold Cup where they have advanced to the preliminary round.
With the results, the Golden Jaguars ended their run in this edition of the CONCACAF showpiece on 10 points, earned by picking up three wins (2-1, 2-0 against Bermuda and 2-1 against Montserrat), while suffering back-to-back humiliating defeats to Haiti.
Johnathan Grant has had a sensational debut for Guyana in the Nations League.
The Haitians topped Group B of League B with 16 points (five wins, one draw) and will advance to League A of next season’s Nations League. They also earned an automatic berth to maindraw of the Gold Cup.
Montserrat on the other hand, even though they ended on four points with Bermuda, will be relegated to League C since they have a -8 goal difference; conceding 14 and scored six.
Guyana defeated Montserrat, 2-1, in their last Nations League meeting in June, where Adrian Clifton scored that day for Montserrat, and Omari Glasgow had a brace at the Olympic Stadium in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Jamaal Shabazz had hoped to either replicate or better that performance and started with Goalkeeper Kai-McKenzie, along with Johnathan Grant, Liam Gordon, Leo Lovell, Elliot Bonds, Jeremy Garrett, Omari Glasgow, Bayli Spencer-Adams, Colin Nelson, Kadel Daniel and Kelsey Benjamin.
His substitutes were Akel Clarke (GK), Joshua Narine, Sam Cox, Jalen Jones, Curtez Kellman, Pernell Schultz, Emery Welshman, Tre Medford, Daniel Wilson, Marcus Wilson and Trayon Bobb.
Guyana made five substitution in the match; Sam Cox replaced Garrett, Wilson came in for Daniel, Kelman handed defender Nelson a rest and Welshman was a late replacement for Lovell.
The Golden Jaguars entered last evening’s game having defeated Bermuda 2 – 0, thanks to strikes from Garrett and Gordon.
Though admitting of always being eager to experiment to learn about his team, Shabazz had told Kaieteur News that the Golden Jaguars would’ve approached the game as their first preparatory step towards the Gold Cup.
Nonetheless, with two months to go before CONCACAF’s marquee tournament, Shabazz will have to head back to the drawing board, where he will try to find the right combination to enter the main draw of the tournament for the first time since 2019.
Omari Glasgow was the team’s highest scorer in the Nations League this year, with the Chicago Fire youth scoring three of Guyana’s eight goals.
The other goals came from Trayon Bobb, Liam Gordon, Jeremy Garrett, Emery Welshman and Nathan Moriah-Welsh.
There have been 127 goals scored in 47 matches, for an average of 2.7 goals per match, where Haiti’s French-born forward Carnejy Antoine out gunned all players to lead with five goals.
Antoine scored three of his five goals against Guyana; two in Haiti’s 6-2 win at the National Track and Field Centre, and once in the Haitian’s 6 – 0 win in Santo Domingo.
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