Lady Jaguars climbed atop Group ‘A’ in League B in the 2024 Road to Concacaf Gold Cup Qualifiers, defeating hosts Suriname 1-0 in a top-of-the table clash yesterday at the Dr. Ir. Franklin Essed Stadium in Paramaribo.
Guyana’s starting XI which featured only one locally based player, comprised Chante Sandifrod, Briana De Souza, Sydney Cummins, Brianne Desa, Justine Rodrigues, Stefani Kouzas, Anya Tribune, Otesha Charles, Shanice Alfred, Neema Liverpool, and Jalade Trim.
Alfred recorded the only conversion of the match in the 41st minute to give the visitors a marginal halftime lead. For the hosts, their best chance occurred in the 59th minute, as Andaya Lantveld struck the woodwork.
In terms of the numbers, the hosts outshot the visitors 10-8, while they also garnered four corners to Guyana’s one. However, the Surinamese unit committed 14 fouls to Guyana’s 10 and was caught in the offside position three times. The second encounter between the teams will occur on Sunday at the same venue at 16:00hrs. Meanwhile, Antigua and Barbuda played a scoreless affair in the second match of the group.
The event serves as the qualifier for the inaugural Road to the Gold Cup. 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.
