Golden Jaguars head-coach Marcio Maximo has declared that his charges have the ability to spring a surprise result against Caribbean heavyweight and traditional rival Trinidad and Tobago in their opening match in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in March.
According to Maximo, “We have a good chance to deliver a surprise. Trinidad has a track record as a participant of the World Cup before, but nothing intimidates us. We know that a difficult challenge awaits us but that is encouraging and motivating us to do better. We go with a good possibility to make a surprise and we will be very competitive. You can’t predict a win but what you can predict is a competitive game,” said Maximo
Maximo said that the tyeam’s focus was not only on Trinidad and Tobago.
“We hope that we will take full advantage of this game. It is not only Trinidad, it’s The Bahamas, St. Kitts and Puerto Rico. The qualifiers are not the starting or finishing with Trinidad so we should make a good start to motivate us for the rest of the qualifiers.”
Guyana will open their group-F campaign away to the ‘Soca Warriors’ on March 25th and are currently training five days per week in preparation for the encounter at the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) National Training Centre at Providence. In their second match, Guyana will host The Bahamas on March 30th.
In their third match, Guyana will travel to St. Kitts and Nevis for Friday June 4th before ending their group round at home on Tuesday June 8th against Puerto Rico. Only the group winner will progress to the second stage of the qualifiers.
According to Maximo, development and overall progression is evident within the ranks of the local players.
“If you train hard with intensity, with tactical discipline and technical discipline, and a physical effort every day that is reflected during the match. With our locally-based group, I can see a big development, according to the commitment, intensity and knowledge. They are growing in each training session.”
He added that while the internationally based players are very important to the programme, the federation’s policy of providing more opportunities to local players is essential to the development of football in Guyana.
“Following the Federation’s policy, we need to give a chance to more local players to be part of the group. Internationally-based players are very important for us, with their experience, knowledge and tactical discipline, but together our group also has to be realistic about the development of football in Guyana. Now more than 50 percent of the players are Guyana-based, so we are improving our local football as well as the hope of players to participate and even to go to international markets, especially the younger players,” Maximo elaborated.
According to Maximo, an increased interest and support amongst the populace can be sensed ahead of the qualifiers.
“When go in the street, or take a taxi, I see that people feel more interested in football. I see more people with more hope in the Golden Jaguars now.”
