President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Colin Klass yesterday opted to dwell on the `positives’ after the Golden Jaguars were booted out of the 2010 World Cup football competition on a wet day at the National Stadium at Providence.
Needing to win by two clear goals to advance to the next round the Golden Jaguars found themselves on the back foot from the outset and were two goals down at half time.
They managed to pull a goal back in the second half but ended up losing the match 1-2 and the series 1-3.
Klass said that even though it was painful to watch the team eliminated, there are many positives that can be drawn from yesterday’s game.
“Well the support from the fans was magnificent and I must say firstly that I think this is the greatest turnout that the National Stadium has ever seen,” he told Stabroek Sport in an invited comment.
“There are many positives that you can draw and one is that we all have seen that the stadium can stand the test of hosting football and even if we were to play another game here tonight the ground would still be able to stand the test.
“Sadly we lost and the only way to maintain the tremendous support that we have got from the fans and more importantly from corporate Guyana is to win, because at the end of the day everybody likes a winner.”
Klass said that in order to maintain the support base that the GFF had seen recently from Guyana at large, they will be doing a lot of rebuilding in the team and that soon he will be meeting with the other executives.
Technical Director of the GFF Jamaal Shabazz shared the GFF president’s perspective as he too managed to show some optimism with Stabroek Sport after the team’s elimination.
“This loss will not keep us from progressing, we have seen that Guyana is a football loving nation because we made the appeal for the fans to come out and they did just that.
“All we have to do now is try to reconstruct the team as many players may not be with us any longer and what we will do is try to bring some of the younger players with us to try to groom them and strengthen our existing unit,” he said.
Despite the thousands of local fans that came out to the Guyana National Stadium at Providence yesterday in their gold t-shirts, gold bandanas, and Golden Arrowheads, the Golden Jaguars went out on a whimper –failing to roar when it mattered most. Patriotism was at its highest with the crowd chanting and fully behind the home team every time they advanced the ball into the opposing team’s territory.
Even the two goals scored by Suriname before halftime were not enough to keep the crowd out of the game, though most of them knew that it meant that their team would have had to score at least four goals to advance. Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington reenergized his home crowd when he netted the home team’s only goal. This gave much hope to the depressed but optimistic crowd who had chanted for more than 80 minutes before seeing any success. And, at least one fan was not too daunted. Alisia Katideen, Sales Marketing Manager of the Caribbean International Distributors Inc. (CIDI) – one of the sponsors of the team- commended the team for a good effort despite the defeat and gave the Golden Jaguars some assuring words on behalf of her company after the game. “You guys do not have to feel pressured having lost here today because CIDI has recognized the effort put forward and we will continue to support you.
“I know that you are tired and depressed having lost here today but I urge you not to be because you all gave a good effort and I must tell you all well done.”
Captain of the Golden Jaguars Charles Pollard assured Stabroek Sport of his continued service to the team whenever needed. Pollard said that it would be back to the drawing board for the Golden Jaguars as they hope to go all the way in the Digicel Cup later this year.
