The Golden Jaguars will face-off against group leader and unbeaten outfit Nicaragua today in a must-win encounter in the Concacaf Men’s U20 Qualifiers at the Estadio Panamericano in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic.
History will certainly favour the Spanish speaking nation, who defeated the Guyanese 1-0 in their previous tournament meeting in 2020, a defeat which sealed the Golden Jaguars exit from the competition at the same qualifying stage.
Guyana currently sits in second place in Group-D on four points, following a scoreless draw against Cayman Islands and a 5-1 defeat of lowly US Virgin Islands. Any other result other than a win will eliminate Guyana from the event.
Wayne Dover, coach of the Golden Jaguars during a post-match comment following his side’s win over US Virgin Islands said, “The victory gave us an opportunity to enter the last game and compete and try and get a result to see how best we can qualify for the championship next year. I am really happy that the players came out and fought this good fight to get the three points.”
The Nicaraguans, though, simply need a draw to progress to the championship round, following contrasting victories over US Virgin Islands [7-0] and Cayman Islands [2-1] respectively.
Guyana competed in the 2018 and 2020 versions of the event. In the 2020 version which featured a qualifying section, Guyana defeated Montserrat 6-0, SVG 3-0 and the USVI 2-0. Their only defeat came at the hands of the higher ranked hosts Nicaragua via a 1-0 score line which sealed their exit from the competition.
The 2018 tournament, which was hosted in the United States of America, did not feature a qualifying tournament. (All of the 34 entrants were guaranteed a minimum of four matches. Seven countries did not participate).
The Golden Jaguars finished the tournament with a record of one win and three losses. Guyana defeated El Salvador 2-0, but lost to Guatemala (0-4), Cayman Islands (2-3), and Curaçao (3-4).
