-Dover
Golden’s Jaguars coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover has said that playing as a unit and proper team organization were the factors responsible for the senior national football team holding the number one ranked team in CONCACAF to a draw in their encounter on Sunday at the Guyana National Stadium.
The Guyana team battled from behind after being 0-1 down to the Soca Warriors to secure a draw and jointly share the inaugural President’s Cup Trophy.
“Our strengths in the game were team organization and playing as a unit because we were denying them spaces to play and comfort on the ball. It didn’t go the way we wanted it to at times but we still got the job done,” Dover said.
Responding to questions from this newspaper, he stated that his team’s performance was a great one, given the fact that.. “we played against a team that is much fitter than we are and also given the time we had to prepare.
“For us to only come together for two weeks and performing this way, the guys must be commended the way they played,” he said.
Dover said that Guyana’s good performance came as no surprise to him since they did their part by putting in the work needed.
He added that regardless of the outcome, the Guyana players gained much more than they lost.
Assistant coach of the Soca Warriors team Ross Russell was quite frank in stating that the team’s performance was disappointing.
“I think it was disappointing because we came here to win and a draw is not what we are looking for in our programme at the moment” Russell disclosed.
Russell stated that the match was a tough encounter but said he felt that his team should have won with the scoring opportunities that they had.
He commended Guyana for their counter attacking which he thought was excellent but stated that he thought his defenders played terrifically to keep them at bay.
Next on the list for the team is the Digicel Cup Championship and like Guyana, the squad which played on Sunday is not their full strength team.
Russell said that since it was not an international weekend most of their Europe-based players did not get to make it for the encounter but will be available for the Digicel Cup.