By Marlon Munroe
The Lady Jaguars stand on the threshold of creating football history if they beat Cuba today by two clear goals at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground.
The two teams will be contesting for the final spot in the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals in Cancun, Mexico later this year.
Further, should the national footballers beat the Cubans, who have already beaten the Guyanese 1-0 on June 26 in the first match, they will also be qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup next year.
But Coach Chris Brown told Stabroek Sport yesterday before his team’s practice session at the Banks DIH Thirst Park ground that the team’s main goal at the moment is to register a 1-0 result foremost. Should the score line read like this at the end of regulation time in Guyana’s favour then the two teams will have to play extra-time and then go to penalty if Guyana does not have a two-shot win.
Guyana’s admirable campaign will come to an end if Cuba repeat last week’s win in Havana.
“One-nil is not insurmountable,” Brown believes.
Brown revealed to Stabroek Sport yesterday that the team did not achieve the win and now the team “is behind and faces an uphill task.” He acknowledged though that the current reality can change for the better now that the ladies are on home soil and have the support of the fans, who have supported them from the inception.
Brown said the technical team will not make any excuses for the loss last Saturday but noted “the bottomline is for the girls to go out there and execute.” Brown emphasised that the management told the players that they “have to give more on the field.” But Brown stated that the Lady Jaguars are not feeling pressured to pull off a victory. Naive, they may be according to Brown because they have never been in such a position to compete on such a level and therefore that “just might be a good thing.”
“We as coaches are not relaying any sort of pressure to that nature. We are looking at it as we need to go and win one-zero. Obviously, to win two would take us outright but if we win one-zero then we force extra time. “Our goal is to win one-zero and keep a clean sheet but of course if we can win by more then we will do that but in terms of looking at it as a two-nothing score, which can be very difficult and daunting we are not looking at that now; we are looking to get that one goal,” Brown explained.
Browne also said that the team’s captain Ashley Rodrigues has been inspirational throughout the campaign although it is a learning experience for her also at this level. “She learns everyday; she walks away from every event we have picking something up and often relay that to the girls and it was no different in Cuba.
“We faced a lot of adversity when we were there. Things did not go as smoothly as we would have hoped in terms of the hospitality but that is stuff that we have to deal with and I think our captain did a very good job with putting matters into perspective and just encouraged the players to focus on the tasks ahead,” the coach said.
The Cubans, according to Brown, have many strengths but he noted that there is a dynamic forward that has posed problems to the defensive line of the Guyanese. However, he pointed out that the Caribbean side doesn’t have so much of a structured defence as some of the teams the Lady Jaguars have played.
With this observation he said that the team’s forwards will be looking to penetrate much more than in the last game. Meanwhile, two of the team’s major sponsors Digicel and Banks DIH made presentations to the team yesterday to offset some of its expenses. Both companies wished the team success while urging them to create history for Guyana.
