Golden Jaguars in must win match against hosts St. Lucia tonight
From Emmerson Campbell
in St Lucia
Despite winning Tuesday’s game 2-1 against Curacao Guyana’s Golden Jaguars find themselves in a must-win situation if they are to be one of the two teams advancing from Group Two to the next round of the Caribbean Football Union Cup competition.
They play hosts St Lucia tonight at the Beasuejour Stadium, Gros Islet, knowing that following their opening round 1-2 defeat to St Vincent and the Grenadines, only a win will suffice.
But for that to happen the Golden Jaguars must improve on their performances so far especially in the goal scoring department.
The senior national football team squandered about a dozen chances against the Lesser Antilles side Tuesday night many of them from point blank range.
The Golden Jaguars dominated Tuesday’s match with their superior fitness, defence and attack but were guilty of not converting their myriad of chances.
The local ball weavers’ finishing near and around the goal must improve if they are to grab three points and be one of the two teams to move onto the next round.
During an interview with Coach Jamaal Shabazz, the Trinidadian stated that a lack of composure on the players’ behalf was the reason for so many missed opportunities.
“I think composure,” said Shabazz yesterday.
“A lot of goals that we missed guys could have taken two touches instead of one and that comes from not being aware how much time and space they have. Composure has to do with how much time and how much space you have to play the ball,” he informed.
Shabazz also called out some of the players who were guilty of missing point blank shots to step up and get the job done.
“Scoring goals is one department of the game that players have to take responsibility for. In my count we have created about 25 chances so really the guys just have to step up to the plate and get the ball in the goal,” he added.
“Our patterns in attack caused us to create these chances and (Gregory) Richardson, (Anthony) Abrams, (Sheldon) Holder, (Vurlon) Mills and all the other players who found themselves in easy scoring chances and did not score, they need to step up and get the ball at the back of the net, none of the technical staff can go on to the pitch and put it there.”
When asked how important was today’s game Shabazz replied:”I think tomorrow’s (today’s) game is very important for the Guyana programme because I do not look at games in isolation, I look at the overall programme and what is best for the programme is that we keep playing and winning.”
He added:”I think it will boil down to how badly we want to win this game tomorrow. The St Lucian public has been a fantastic one behind their team and it makes for a very exciting match. However, I am backing our players to rise to the occasion and get the job done.”
Tonight’s game will kick off at 20:30hrs.
Guyana’s starting 11 will most likely be made up of Chris Nurse (Captain) Richardson, Mills, Holder, Ronson Williams (goalkeeper) Charles Pollard, Konata Mannings, Dwight Peters, Colin Nelson, Kelvin Smith and Walter Moore.
