Despite incurring a 2-0 defeat in their last competitive meeting, history will be on Guyana’s side today when they oppose Caribbean Football Union (CFU) rival Saint Lucia today from 20:30hrs at the National Stadium in Providence.
The return of international football to local shores after an absence of more than 29 months will play witness to the seventh meeting between the two sides. The last international friendly on local shores was a 3-2 defeat to El Salvador on September 11th 2012.
Historically Guyana will start the fixture as the favourite after securing four victories in the brief rivalry while St. Lucia has notched two wins inclusive of their most recent meeting in the 2014 Caribbean Cup tourney.
In terms of International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) ranking, the Saint Lucians currently sit 132nd on the list while Guyana rest 34 places below. Their best ever ranking was 108th achieved in 2003 while Guyana achieved their best FIFA ranking of 86th during the month of November 2010.
Coming off a 2-2 away draw with Barbados on February 1st 2015, the local unit will be confident of securing a positive result given that there has never been a draw between the two sides to date.
A thorough examination of their rivalry highlights Guyana’s overwhelming historic edge. Their first matchup on June 2nd 1991 led to a 4-1 win for the visitors. H however since then Guyana has won four out of the last five fixtures.
The Golden Jaguars secured their first victory against St. Lucia on the 28th July 2006 by a 2-0 margin. They would follow up that win two days later with another victory, this time by a 3-2 result.
Guyana would further secure two more wins on the 13th October 2010 by a 1-0 score and on the 25th October 2012 by a 3-0 score line before finally losing to St. Lucia in 2014 with a squad featuring most local and inexperienced players.
Similarly in terms of goals scored during their contests, Guyana hold the slight edge by a 10-8 margin. In terms of the squads, the local setup will have several overseas and local based players to choose from.
