The Golden Jaguars, Guyana’s senior men’s football team, will be up against history this evening when they open their Group ‘F’ campaign in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against the Trinidad and Tobago ‘Soca Warriors’ at the Estadio Panamericano in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.
In what will be the 23rd meeting of the nations, competitive history sits in the corner of the Twin Island Republic. A record of 14 wins illustrates the dominance of the ‘Soca Warriors’ who have only been defeated twice by the Golden Jaguars. This is sandwiched between six drawn encounters.
Analysis of the numbers indicate that Trinidad has recorded 45 goals during the period at a rate of 2.045 goals per match which is superior to the Golden Jaguars 16 conversions at a rate of 0.727 goals per fixture. However, the gap has somewhat narrowed in the previous seven meetings where Trinidad and Tobago has a record of four draws, two wins and a loss.
The more famous of Guyana’s two victories occurred during this timeframe on November 11, 2011, on local shores (the first ever win transpired in 1978). The Golden Jaguars have recorded seven goals in this period at a rate of 1 per encounter, while conceding 10 at 1.43 per match.
In a virtual pre-match press briefing yesterday, head-coach Marcio Maximo, said, “We are very happy with the commitment that we see here from all members of the staff and players. When you have commitment like this, training hard day by day… good results can come.”
He added, “We changed our approach since the last game against Trinidad and we studied Trinidad for one year. I can’t discuss the tactics that we will play but we will be very vertical, very fast, that’s why we changed some players to make the team faster. In our view, the characteristics of Guyana players, even the overseas players are fast and you should give the system to them so they can adapt easily. We can say we are ready for the game and we will give a good performance. While we can’t predict the result, we are optimistic.
We want a competitive game and put a competitive team on the pitch. That is our first challenge.”
Captain Samuel Cox said he was pleased with the team’s preparation.
“Preparation has been really good, the boys have applied themselves fantastically during camp. It has been an intense couple of days I must admit from when we arrived, we hit the ground running especially those first couple of days getting acclimatised to the environment and the international boys integrating with the local players is something that easily happened. We are doing everything we can and we are all looking forward and excited for the game tomorrow.”
Cox is predicting a tough encounter.
“We know how tough a challenge Trinidad will be and that’s taking nothing away from the other tough games which are upcoming as well. Of course you have Puerto Rico, St Kitts and The Bahamas, who are, of course, going to pose a threat. We take one game at a time. Trinidad and Tobago is our priority at the moment which I don’t think is make or break. As you know in Caribbean football, anything can happen. This is our priority at the moment, we take each game as it comes. We know the importance of this one so we will do everything to get the three points.”
He added, “We have been working on what we are going to do tactically, we are aware of some of the problems that the TTFA have gone through over the last year and we know of some of the new players that they have brought into their squad, some of them are over from the leagues in England. We know what they bring to the table, we know that the Trinidad teams are always physical [and] of course we know about the rivalry which comes between us and Trinidad, so it’s going to be a highly competitive game. We are primarily focussing on what we are going to do and how we are going to get the advantage technically, tactically, psychologically, and mentally.”
“We have done quite a bit on the board and video analysis on their game but our strengths are going to be our speed and our tactical understanding. We got something up our sleeves from the last camp, the coach has changed a few things. It’s going to be an interesting game, highly competitive and I know for sure that we are all ready to go to war with Trinidad and Tobago,” Cox added.
Guyana will continue their Group ‘F’ campaign against the Bahamas on March 30. In their third match, Guyana will travel to St Kitts and Nevis for Friday June 4 before ending their group round at home on Tuesday June 8 against Puerto Rico. Only the group winner will progress to the second stage of the qualifiers.
The complete Golden Jaguars squad reads: Kyle McKenzie-Lyle, Miguel Scarlett, Matthew Briggs, Kadell Daniels, Bailey Spencer-Adams, Terrence Vancooten, Nathan Moriah-Welsh, Sam Cox, Callum Harriet, Keanu Marsh-Brown, Emery Welshman, Akel Clarke, Shawn Adonis, Nikkoloi Andrews, Nicholas MacArthur, Kelsey Benjamin, Jeremy Garrett, Ryan Hackett, Daniel Wilson, Pernell Schultz, Trayon Bobb, Job Caesar, and Omari Glasgow.
