The Under-20 Lady Jaguars romped to a convincing 7-0 victory over Antigua and Barbuda in the opening Group D qualifying round at Uitvlugt Community Centre Ground yesterday for the 2012 Under-20 World Cup next year in Uzbekistan.
In the presence of a fairly vocal crowd that included members of the senior Guyana men’s “Golden Jaguars” side and Guyana Football Federation (GFF) executives, the Lady Jaguars quickly signalled their intent to dominate the game.
With both teams playing with the standard 4-4-2 formation, Guyana dominated their Leeward Island opponents by having better positional discipline throughout the game, dominating the key mid-field battle and solid counter-attacking football.
In the first minute of play, a quick long-ball pass across the box from left-winger Kailey Leila, fell right into the path of right-winger Elysia Prasad, who slotted home her chance easily.
Leila was again into the action in the third minute, sprinting past the opposition full-back and sending a low-pass into the path of Tessa Edwards who was powering forward from mid-field.
Goals continued to flow when an Ashley Savona corner found eventual helmet-trick hero Otesha Charles totally unmarked in the box, to head home, propelling the Lady Jags into a 3-0 lead within the opening 10 minutes.
Charles continued to torment the Antiguan defence with her pace, scoring two more goals to complete a hat-trick in the 42nd minute, before Captain Savona scored to take Guyana into the half-time interval with a commanding 6-0 score-line.
In the second half, the intensity of Guyana’s play decreased noticeably as they began to sit on their six-goal advantage. However in the 58th minute Charles scored her fourth goal when she took advantage of a ricochet from the Antiguan keeper from a Savona free-kick, just outside the box.
Earlier, a hat-trick from Yqaueisi Soriano aided the Dominican Republic in completing a 5-0 victory over Anguilla. Soriano scored her goals in the 10th, 46th and 54th minutes, while Anajaira Burgos also scored two goals in the 60th and 8tth minutes.
Group D matches continue tomorrow at Uitvlugt with Guyana tackling Anguilla and Dominican Republic facing Antigua.
