By Calvin Roberts
The die was cast and the stage set. All that was needed was a win by two clear goals which to advance to the next round of the CONCACAF Qualifying Round of the FIFA 2010 World Cup that will be held in South Africa.
But, before an estimated crowd of 8000 most of whom were decked out in gold tops, the Golden Jaguars as the national soccer team is called went out with a whimper losing 1-2 to Suriname at the National Stadium at Providence yesterday.
The Golden Jaguars had gone down to Suriname 1-0 in the away fixture last week at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Paramaribo and needed to win by two clear goals in order to advance.
Instead it was the Jaguars’ who found themselves 0-2 behind at lemon time on home turf.
Just as they did in Suriname, the Jaguars found it difficult to convert the goal scoring opportunities which they created and duly paid the price for their inefficiency.
It was evident that the visitors wanted the win more than the home team who were intent in carrying the ball into the back of the net instead of shooting it there.
Playing with three forwards, the Jaguars seemed intent in getting their two goals and possibly more as was predicted by Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz prior to the match, but only Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington proved to be a worthy customer to the opposition leading up to lemon time.
The visitors made their presence felt as early as the 5th minute when the diminutive Germaine Van Dyck found the back of the net following a goal mouth scrimmage that left goalkeeper Richard Reynolds and the defence bewildered.
Codrington tried his best to score the equalizer when he wormed his way into the box after receiving a gem of a pass from Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, but could only force a corner as the Surinamese defence, led by Derrick Garden and Ferdinand Jap-a-Joe, stood firm.
It was an even exchange thereafter until the 20th minute when Christopher Wensley of Suriname sent a low shot to goal after rounding Carey Harris but his shot goal even though it was a good one was superbly saved by Reynolds.
Four minutes later, Reynolds was called upon to pull off another save when Wensley, who was having a wonderful day, sent a shot to goal from just inside the box.
At the other end, it was Suriname’s custodian Ronny Aloema’s turn to pull off a save when a Kayode Mc Kinnon free kick taken from just inside Suriname’s half found its way to his far post in the 26th minute.
It must have been a goal scoring curse that affected the Jaguars in this game as when Shawn ‘Fatso’ Bishop wormed his way into the box after receiving a gem of a pass from Walter’ Boyd’ Moore and eluded his marker, he just could not get a shot off.
Even Howard Lowe, who was utilizing his over lapping skills to good effect, went on one of those overlapping runs in the 37th minute and sent a pass to Codrington, but once again, Jap-a-Joe and Garden double teamed him and prevented him from getting a shot off.
As was the case in Paramaribo, a blunder was to cost the Golden Jaguars dearly as Aloema repeated his feat by calmly finding Jap-a-Joe with one of his long throws.
The defender then over lapped with the ball and after dummying his shot not once or twice but three times, sent his cross into the Jaguars box where an unmarked Sanduliet calmly found the back of the net to spark off wild celebrations amongst the small group of Surinamese supporters in the stands who were chanting ‘We want more’ after Van Dyck’s goal.
A more purposeful Jaguars unit took the field for the second half and following an infringement committed on Codrington just outside of the Surinamese box at the Media Centre End of the stadium, Mc Kinnon, who took the ensuing free kick, saw his shot ricochet off the near post after it was parried by Aloema.
The loose ball fell at the feet of Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams who up to this time was a shadow of himself on the field.
In a move reminiscent of the great Brazilian star Pele, Abrams tried a bicycle kick only to see the ball just going wide of the uprights much to the dismay of not only himself and his teammates, but the thousands of spectators.
Abrams was substituted immediately after that play and with the introduction of Collie `Hitman’ Hercules, the Jaguars suddenly seemed intent on advancing to the next round of the qualifiers.
Hercules injected life into the team with his nippy play and immediately forced the visitors into the defensive mode.
Shabazz went for broke when he also introduced both Dwight Peters and England-based Guyanese Howard Newton into the game within the space of 10 minutes and immediately the visitors were at sea as the trio of Hercules, Peters and Newton proved to be thorns in the flesh.
They harassed the defence with Hercules gaining some advantage for the Jaguars who controlled play in their opponents’ half for a 10-minute period when some three chances were not converted.
Newton, who was making some spirited runs down the line for the Jaguars, went on one of those and his ensuing pass was punched out by Aloema onto the head of Beveney whose header was lacking power and Aloema had time to recover and effect the save
.
Shortly after, Codrington sent a ball to Richardson who was stationed inside the 18 yard box, but instead of controlling the ball, he attempted to put some pace on it in order to get it to Peters but the Surinamese recovered and cleared the ball.
The Jaguars were not to be denied their goal though and Codrington made amends for the early blunders when following another one of Newton’s crosses which Aloema failed to get a grasp on he bicycled the ball into the back of the net to a thunderous response from the team’s supporters.
Suddenly it was Suriname 2; Guyana 1 with less than 10 minutes to go. A pumped up Codrington found himself perfectly placed for another shot shortly after, but was whistled for a hand ball and even though he began to work overtime for his team by worming his way into the box, his crosses, that were intended for either Hercules, Richardson or Peters who were all lurking in the box were well saved by Aloema.
That goal was to be the Golden Jaguars’ final trick as the shrill sound of the referee’s whistle signaled the end of the dream for them and the continuation of the qualification process for Suriname.