By Iva Wharton
Ahead of the most testing period in this nation’s football history, the Golden Jaguars as the national soccer team is known, is not so much under the weather but at the mercies of it.
The team is scheduled to depart Guyana next week for a series of friendly international engagements but water-logged grounds caused by the current rainy season has disrupted the team’s training, preventing the players from practicing their set plays and attacking manoeuvres.
Manager of the Golden Jaguars team, Mark Xavier, told Stabroek Sport in an exclusive interview that the team has been forced to train on the Georgetown Seawall.
“It has been hampered by rains and we have not had any access to grounds. We are out here using the beach, we have to use what we can.”
Xavier said that the players are out on the Seawall almost every day although they rested last weekend.
“Right now we are doing a lot of fitness work and in between we are doing a bit of technical and tactical work.
“The coaches have been doing a really good work and the guys have bought into what we are doing. It bodes well for us before we leave for the Caribbean tour in a few days.”
The team leaves on Saturday for Trinidad and Tobago.
Their first match is scheduled for February 14 against a Tobago team in Tobago.
Other matches will be against the Trinidad’s Under-16 Olympic team; St. Vincent and the Grenadines on February 19 and against the Grenada national team on February 22.
Xavier said that the team will be back on February 23 to continue preparing for the game against Guatemala whom they face on February 29.
“It’s a work in progress. We have a schedule to take us up to the games and we are right where we need to be right now. We just had a fitness test the other day and everybody performed really well, but you could always get better,” he added.
According to Xavier, the touring team will comprise young players who need the opportunity and exposure of playing for their country.
“This time it’s mostly the locally-based players that are going on the Caribbean tour but we are going to have our full squad for the match against Guatemala on the 29th.
“The England based and US-based players are going to be here so we are going with a lot of locally-based players; a lot of younger players; to give them the experience of trial under fire because it’s going to bode well for us going down the road in the World Cup qualifiers starting in June,” he reasoned.
Pernelle Schultz, William Europe, Daniel Wilson, Sheldon Holder, Colin Edwards and Dorvil Stewart are among the young players on the team:
“They are on their first journey on the senior national team. They are very young players who are working very hard and we need to develop that talent because we are going to need it down the road,” said Xavier.
Edwards and Holder who are from Fruta Conquerors and Pele Football Clubs respectively, said playing for the national was a great joy.
According to Edwards it is an unspeakable joy to be given the opportunity to represent his country at this level.
Holder, on the other hand, said the experience was good as he is getting the kind of exposure that he has been craving for a long time.
Their advice to other young footballers is to work hard and dedicate themselves to the sport and they too will have the opportunity to represent Guyana.
Yesterday the players were joined by young people from various groups among them the Youths for Guyana, Youth Coalition for Transformation, People’s Progressive Organisation and the Junior Chamber International (Guyana) in a clean-up campaign along Georgetown’s coastline.
Xavier said it would be fatuous of them not to participate in such an exercise since the Seawall is their ballfield now.
Also, the players like true civic minded citizens are trying their best to assist in the protection of the environment.
