With the national female soccer team known as the Lady Jaguars set to commence the CFU Women’s Challenge Series tomorrow against Grenada at the Ato Bolton Stadium, Trinidad and Tobago from 16:00hrs, head-coach Dr. Ivan Joseph, said the tournament’s focus will be on the tactical and technical acumen of the players.
According to an official release from the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), the recently appointed Joseph said, “I’m really concerned with whether our players can execute the established systems. The outcome and the results of that game are irrelevant. Does our Right Back stay wide? Does our Centre Back hold the centre of the park? Does our Goalkeeper collect the balls in the air? Does our team have speed that I don’t know of? Are the players fitter than I thought? Those are the things that I’m looking to really find out and no matter the opponent, I’ll be able to draw those conclusions at the end of the game or, at least, be a long way towards finding those answers.”
He added: “I am impressed with how well and how open the players are to really mingling and getting to know each other. I can see them making a considered effort to get out of their traditional groups and we see a nice inter-mingling and mixture of players trying to build a cohesive and tight team.” GFF Technical Director Ian Greenwood said the GFF was looking to see how well the various components would blend together.
“The GFF has established key performance indicators for the women’s national team, including integration of the new staff structure (international and Guyana),” he said.
“I think this is the first time we’ve had such a comprehensive, qualified and experienced staff so we are looking forward to how these elements will blend together and really drive the programme going forward,” he added. Greenwood said the team is a mixture of players who had had some level of international experience before and some who have not.
“There is a mix of players who have experienced international football before, some have played U17 international football and, for others, it’s a brand new experience for them so we will be looking at how they blend and adapt to the rigors and requirements to play senior international football. Standards are being set by the National Team very early so all the players understand what’s expected of them; the key message to all of the players is to earn the right to wear the badge.”
The Guyanese will faceoff on April 27th with Suriname, before concluding their campaign on the 29th against hosts Trinidad and Tobago.
