The Lady Jaguars football roster, which competed at the recently concluded CONCACAF Girls U15 Championship in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA, only comprised 14 players owing to travel related issues.
This was disclosed by a source close to the programme, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. According to the source, travel issues impacted the final roster for the team, adding that Guyana played half the tournament (4 games) with only 12 players due to this unfortunate and unexpected outcome.
The source explained, “The team was supposed to be 16 players, eight overseas and eight locals. However, the local based team had travel issues from Guyana to the USA, they eventually went through Panama and then to Tampa. Only five players departed Guyana. The team started the tournament with only 12 players, and received an additional two players from Canada who came over after the second group game.
In total, the team had 14 players from the third game, which was the final group match. This meant that Guyana played half the tournament with only 12 players.”
Efforts to contact the General Secretary Ian Alves for a comment proved futile. Calls to his cellular phone went unanswered.
The Guyana Football Federation (GFF) did not reveal that travel issues had impacted the composition of the final squad. The local governing entity also did not disclose the official composition prior to the team’s departure.
However, according to CONCACAF, the approved 18 member roster that was submitted for the tournament was Eva Rayman, Jasmine Solomon-Ross, Nydel Nelson, Martha Chance, Edelsa Daniels, Maliya June Gangadin, Heike Clarke, Tanya Devair, Kimora Edwards, Mariah Woolford, Sue Edwards, Akeelah Vancooten, Fayon Harry, Ashley Haynes, Marley Oppenheimer, Ashanna Rajkamar, Britney Poonsammy, and Jayda Schoburgh.
The Lady Jaguars ended their campaign in the CONCACAF Girls U15 Championship with a record of one win, two losses and a draw. Guyana defeated Turks & Caicos 3-1 in their final match, which was a replay of their opening group game that ended 2-2.
The Guyanese suffered 1-3 defeats to Nicaragua and the Cayman Islands respectively. The team was coached by Delon Williams, while Kayla DeSouza, and Natalie Nedd served in the capacity of assistant and goalkeeper coach respectively.
