Guyana ended their CONCACAF Girls u17 Football Championship campaign win-less, going down 8-0 to Cuba yesterday in their final group matchup at the National Track and Field Centre, Leonora.
Akilah Castello, Coach of the Guyana team during the post-match press conference said, “It was a matchup that we expected, we didn’t expect anything different but the girls did their best and it is what it is.”
Meanwhile, Coach of Cuba Lazaro Alfonso via a translator said, “We saw the first game and we knew their weaknesses and we worked on it and sent our forwards ahead.”
The score-line could have been much worse in what was a must-win encounter for both teams, as Cuba was noticeably wasteful in the offensive third, spurning several clear-cut chances which was the feature of their scoreless draw with Barbados.
The home side was eventually breached in the 23rd minute, with Ellianne Sarmiento lobbing a right-foot shot from the centre of the field, into the top-right corner.
The second goal for Cuba quickly followed, as Amanda Dominguez netted two minutes onward, placing her effort into the lower right corner from outside the left of the area.
Although it was a dismal attacking display from the host, the diminutive Jalade Trim fashioned their best chance of the half in the 40th minute, cutting across the body of the defender, before lashing her effort straight at the goalkeeper from inside the centre of the box.
Nevertheless, Cuba ended the first period in the perfect manner, with Sarmiento securing her double in the 45th+1 compliments of a strike into the top left corner, after receiving a pass from the right side of the box.
Upon the resumption of play, Trim was presented with a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit in the 50th minute, racing onto a lobbed pass to be in a one on one situation, only to be denied by the advancing goalkeeper Erika Rodriguez.
However, the second half was all about substitute forward Cecil Tamayo, who feasted on the hapless Guyanese back-line, recording four goals in the process.
The individual blitz started in the 62nd minute, as Tamayo stole the ball off the defender inside the left of the box, before curling a right foot shot into the top right corner.
Her second came in the 73rd minute as the score ballooned to 5-0, racing onto a through pass inside the right of the box and slotting unchallenged into the lower left corner.
Two minutes onward the hat-trick was sealed, as Tamayo directed a right foot volley into the right corner, after latching onto a cross from the right flank.
Her salvo was then completed in the 78th minute, as Tamayo raced onto another through pass, before thumping a powerful right foot shot into the roof of the net from inside the centre of the box.
Sulenys Barrios applied the finishing touch in the 81st minute, placing her effort into the lower right corner from outside the left of the penalty box.
All Pictures compliments of Royston Dublin
