The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) through an official correspondence announced that the Golden Jaguars senior programme will contest its fourth international friendly under the reign of Jamaal Shabazz against traditional rivals Suriname on April 30th.
The fixture, which is to be held at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in the Dutch nation, will be the 25th meeting between the two rivals. In their most recent meeting, Guyana defeated the FIFA 161st ranked Surinamese 2-0 on October 2010.
The match will get underway at 8pm and according to a release, head coach of the team Jamaal Shabazz said that he was looking forward to the challenge.
“Suriname is a formidable opponent and we have had joyous moments and heart breaking moments against them. Matches against ‘the Dutch’ means more than football to Guyana; it’s a huge rivalry that goes way back to both our colonial pasts,” Shabazz noted.
“Against Grenada we used only five players who started against St. Lucia and now we have a great opportunity to widen the pool. When one considers that in the three friendly matches we have played so far this year, seven under 23s have featured prominently, which shows that we are starting to see depth in the squad. Additionally, games outside of the FIFA match window allow us a great opportunity to keep bodies on the pitch and our eyes on the prize,” he added.
According to the release, “chairman of the Normalization Committee, Clinton Urling, said that the Committee members were pleased with the progress of the senior men’s squad since they assumed the leadership of the GFF and this represents another tangible example of the federation putting football first and above all. It also gives the team adequate practice for our first World Cup Qualifier in June.”
Since the GFF Normalization Committee has been at the helm of the local fraternity, the Golden Jaguars have featured in three international friendlies. They boast a record of two wins and one draw, with victories coming against St. Lucia and Grenada and the stalemate against Barbados.
