With the team slated to depart local shores on Saturday for the CONCACAF U17 Men’s Football Qualifiers in Florida, USA, head-coach Vurlon Mills has affirmed that the primary objective is to qualify for the elimination section of the competition, which is slated for Guatemala in 2023.
This was disclosed during a brief interview yesterday with Stabroek Sport at the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) National Training Centre, Providence.
“The expectation is to qualify, we have played a few practice games, and we are comfortable with the results and the performances.”
head-coach Vurlon Mills
Guyana has been drawn in Group-A alongside The Bahamas, Bermuda, Bonaire, British Virgin Islands, and Saint Martin.
The Guyanese will open their campaign against Bonaire on Tuesday August 30 at 9:00am. They will oppose the Bahamas on September 1 at 11:00am, before locking horns with Saint Martin on the 3rd from 9:00am. On the 5th at 9:00am, Guyana will tackle the British Virgin Islands, before concluding their campaign against Bermuda on the 7th at 11:00am.
Meanwhile, Group-B comprises Anguilla, Aruba, Martinique, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, while Group-C contains the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Group-D features Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Nicaragua, and Turks and Caicos Islands. The respective winners from the aforementioned groups, will progress to the 2023 CONCACAF U17 Men’s Championship
Mills opined, “I think Bermuda will be the toughest game in the group for the fact that we play similar style and the fact they might have a strong overseas based squad.”
“The preparation has been good because we have been getting more days and time to train. The team is developing more chemistry and we are starting to play better as a unit. Today [yesterday] the final team will be shortlisted so we can officially release the roster. The team is leaving on Saturday”, he explained.
Meanwhile, GFF Technical Director Bryan Joseph was quoted as saying, “I feel very confident because the preparation was good.
We had enough time and the exposure that we had on the European trip, I think that bodes well. I think even with the addition of players from the diaspora, we basically got a much stronger team that can compete over the five matches.”
