It’s day two of the 2009 Parbo Bier Cup in Suriname and team Guyana after losing their opening game on Wednesday will be coming out looking for a much needed victory when they face the hosts today at the Andre Kampervene Stadium at 4 pm local time.
The Golden Jaguars fell 2-1 to Antigua after leading one nil in the first half and only they could explain what went wrong since the manager Lawrence Griffith said that the team had played an excellent game.
Guyana and Suriname have shared a rich and keen rivalry in the sport of football over the years and it was Suriname that shattered their hopes of seeing South Africa in 2010.
It was the first time in Guyana’s history that they had made it to the second round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers and as fate would have it that is as far as they would go, at least for the next four years. They lost the first leg in Suriname and went down 2-1 in front of almost 8,000 diehard Guyanese fans at the National Stadium, Providence.
However under then captain Charles ‘Lilly’ Pollard and former Technical Director Jamaal Shabazz, the Golden Jaguars regrouped and booted Suriname out of the Digicel Caribbean Cup championships.
The National Stadium was once again the venue and a sea of yellow flowed across the seats as Guyana equalized in the 91st minute after going down by one in the first half through Dwight Peters to advance to the second round of the tournament.
But the same team dropped out of the event in Trinidad and then the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) announced the team’s resurgence with new players, new management, and new coaches.
Paul James is at the helm with Howard Lowe as captain. It is certainly not the type of start that the two predicted prior to their departure since they had told Stabroek Sport of their optimism about coming back successful.
The two will have to use the game today to salvage some pride in the youthful national side with one more match to play in the four-nation Parbo Bier Cup
Suriname played on the opening night as well against French Guiana but the result from their clash is not known.
