The Omar Khan era in the Lady Jaguars senior programme started off on a losing note as Guyana went down 1-2 to hosts Antigua and Barbuda yesterday at the Technical Centre in St. John’s in Group A of League B in the Road to Concacaf W Gold Cup Qualifiers.
Guyana, which is ranked 14th in CONCACAF and 85th in FIFA, lost to a unit seeded 18th regionally and 174th globally, employed a starting XI that comprised Chante Sandiford, Anya Tribune, Brianne Desa, Savanna Mondesir-Singh, Otesha Charles, Samantha Banfield, Jalade Trim, Sandra Johnson, Stefani Kouzas, Dylana Makarowski, and Rylee Traicoff.
The Guyanese fell behind in the 13th minute when Gabrielle De Suza found the back of the net. The score remained unchanged heading into the halftime interval. De Suza then made her presence felt once more as she completed her brace in the 51st minute to extend the hosts’ lead to 2-0.
The Lady Jaguars eventually recorded a consolation goal in the 62nd minute via a penalty conversion from Brianne Desa after Jalade Trim was adjudged to have been fouled inside the 18-yard area.
Meanwhile, Suriname, which is positioned 20th in the region and 132nd in FIFA, crushed hosts Dominica 4-0 in the second match of the group. Dominica is seeded 24th in CONCACAF and 161st in FIFA.
Guyana will continue their Group A campaign on Sunday against Dominica at the Wildey Stadium in Barbados.
The event will serve as the qualifiers for the inaugural Road to the World Gold Cup and will occur during the FIFA Women’s International Window in September, October, and November of this year.
After home and away group stage matches within each league, the respective winners of each League A section (three teams) will qualify for the 2024 W Gold Cup Group Stage. The second-place finishers in each of the League A groups (three teams) and the winners of each League B pool (three teams) will progress to the preliminary stage of the 2024 W Gold Cup (six teams in total).
The inaugural W Gold Cup will occur from February 17th–March 10th, 2024, in the United States.
