The Lady Jaguars roster has been officially announced by Concacaf ahead of the team’s participation in the 2022 Women’s U20 Championship in the Dominican Republic tomorrow, with three locally born players featuring in the final 18 member squad.
According to a release from the regional body, the overseas born and/or based players are Arden LaRose, Jessica Myers, Savannah Mordesir-Singh, Audrey Narine, Samantha Banfield, Jenea Knight, Kiana Khedoo, Jessica Jagdeo, Rory Scott, Dylana Makarowski, Inari Moore, Gabriella Salvadore, Anessa O’Brien, Allianna Holder, and Valentina Khan.
The local trio are Hasha Holder, Shamya Daniels, and Alleia Alleyne. Notable absentees from the list include Jalade Trim and Sandra Johnson. Meanwhile, the technical staff is led by head-coach Paul DeAbreu, with Akilah Castello and Gavin Fredericks serving as assistant coaches.
Andre Hazel, Kristina Cook, Abiola Blair, Lisa Ahmad, Naseya Brewster-Cupido, and Nicola Argyle, will serve in the capacities of goalkeeper coach, performance analyst, physiotherapist, team manager, operations manager and equipment manager respectively.
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF), the local governing body, is yet to issue an official press release announcing the composition and the arrival of the team in the Dominican Republic.
The Lady Jaguars will open their Group-F campaign in the 2022 Concacaf Women’s U20 Championship on Saturday against Honduras from 14:00hrs at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The other teams in Group-F are Mexico and Panama. In their second encounter two days later, Guyana will match skills with Mexico from 14:00hrs at the same venue, before closing out their group campaign against Panama on the 28th.
Guyana was eliminated at the quarterfinal stage by Haiti via a 0-3 scoreline in their previous outing in the 2020 edition.
The Lady Jaguars finished the previous tournament with a record of three wins and two losses. They defeated Nicaragua (3-1, group stage), Puerto Rico (2-1, group stage) and Cayman Islands (2-0, round of 16 stage). They went down to Mexico (0-3, group stage) and Haiti (0-3, quarterfinal stage).
Meanwhile, Group-E comprises the United States, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Nicaragua, while Group-G contains Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador and St. Kitts and Nevis. Group-H features Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala and Cuba.
The top three teams from each pool will advance to the round of 16 stage. They will be joined by the respective group winners of the qualifying section. They are Bermuda (Group-A), Cayman Islands (Group-B), Curacao (Group-C) and Suriname (Group-D).
The top three teams of the tournament will qualify for the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup and will join host nation Costa Rica as the CONCACAF representatives.
