Guyana’s Golden Jaguars slumped to their second defeat in 48 hours when they lost 0-2 to Panama on Sunday evening at the Estadio Rommel Fernández Stadium,Panama City.
The match was the national side’s final official friendly international before commencing action in the World Cup qualifiers next month.
In what was a “closed door” encounter, a fairly tired Guyana team, who were travelling almost immediately after losing 0-1 to Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz on Friday evening in Montego Bay, held their own for more than hour against their opponents ranked 52nd in the world in the FIFA rankings.
But the visitor’s resistance was eventually broken when goals in the 70th and 73rd minute from mid-fielders Yairo Yau and Darwin Pinzon propelled Los Marea Roja (The Red Tide), one of Panama’s two colloquial names, to a comfortable win.
Assistant Coach of the Golden Jaguars Wayne “Diggy” Dover spoke briefly about his thoughts over the two games and his overarching synopsis was that the Jaguars need to be more clinical with the chances they receive, with opponents of the calibre of Mexico and Costa Rica on the horizon.
“I thought they guys gave a good performance but was clearly a bit tired from Saturday’s long travel. We had some good goal scoring opportunity but did not convert our chances, at this level you need to take your chances because when the opponent gets their chances, they take it, just like the game against Jamaica,” explained Dover.
He pointed out that veteran mid-field Kayode McKinnon, English based striker Carl Cort, left-winger Dwain Jacobs and Canada based defender Julien Edwards were the standout players in the two fixtures.
The Guyanese now go into camp at an undisclosed South American location before a final squad is picked for the June 8th and 12th encounters versus Mexico and Costa Rica.
For the camp, the squad current contingent will be joined by the other regular foreign based players such as captain Chris Nurse, Leon Cort, Ricky Shakes, the Newton Brother – Howard and Jake, John Paul Rodrigues, Walter Moore, Chris Bourne and Gregory Richardson.
Guyana: Richard Reynolds (Colin Edwards) Charles Pollard, Julien Edwards, Kester Jacobs, Kester David, Kayode McKinnon, Anthony Benfield (Konata Mannings), Brandon Beresford (Vurlon Mills), Dwight Peters, Anthony Abrams (Daniel Wilson), Carl Cort (Anthony Abrams)
Panama: Iván Picard – Luis Henríquez (Aníbal Godoy), Jean Carlos, Cedeño, Rolando Algandona, Érick Vásquez, Amílcar Henríquez (Roderick Miller), Juan De Dios Pérez, Aramis Haywood (Darwin Pinzón), Javier Cedeño, Amir Waithe, Yairo Glaize Yau.
