The Lady Jaguars rebounded from their opening-day loss to Antigua and Barbuda in the Road to Concacaf Gold Cup Qualifiers as they mauled Dominica 5-0 yesterday at the Wildey Stadium in Barbados.
It was the first win of the Omar Khan era, as Guyana’s starting XI, which contained only one locally based player, comprised Chante Sandiford, Anya Tribune, Rylee Traicoff, Savannah Mordesir Singh, Brianne Desa, Samantha Banfield, Hannah Baptiste, Stefani Kouzas, Dylana Makarowski, Jalade Trim and Otesha Charles.
Guyana attempted a total of 20 shots during the match in comparison to Dominica’s three, while the former also recorded eight corner-kicks in contrast to the two by the latter.
The contest was over in the first half, as Guyana stormed to a 4-0 advantage. Trim commenced the rout in the fifth minute with a header into the back of the net. Desa then made it 2-0 in the eighth minute as she converted from the penalty spot.
Trim then continued her goal-scoring exploits, recording her brace in the 25th minute with another headed strike into the back of the net.
Charles then got into the scoring act in the 30th minute, slotting home unchallenged inside the penalty area after receiving a flat left-sided cross. The score was sealed in the 64th minute when Charles found the back of the net to complete her brace.
According to an official release from the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), head coach Omar Khan, during a post-match comment, said, “Winning always feels good. Our feeling was that the first match was… a little… the preparation was a little bit too tight to really prepare the team, so we got surprised by Antigua. I think we made a good comeback learning from that game.”
Similarly, Captain Sandiford added, “It’s always an honor playing for Guyana. It’s nice to see a lot of familiar faces as well as new ones. I’m just honored, proud, and excited to continue playing and hoping Guyana achieves the goals that we want to achieve.”
Meanwhile, Suriname edged Antigua and Barbuda 1-0 in the other fixture of the group. Guyana will now face off with Suriname twice during the month of October. Guyana will travel to Suriname on October 25th before playing the reverse fixture four days later.
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 winner 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 winner 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.
