The Golden Jaguars, Guyana’s national men’s football team, suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of neighbouring Suriname yesterday at the National Track & Field Centre in Edinburgh, West Coast Demerara.
In fact, the defeat ruined the Golden Jaguars return to action on home soil and spoilt their debut in the Concacaf Nations League A.
Playing in front of a sparse crowd but vocal crowd, the Guyanese side, even though boosted by the return of Terrence Vancooten in defence, would fall behind in the 18th minute as defender Djevencio Van Der Kust put the visitors ahead.
Van Der Kust uncorked a powerful left-footed strike after cutting into the left side of the penalty area, which settled into the right-hand corner of the net.
While the recently revived playing surface at Edinburgh showed some inconsistency in terms of bounce, it allowed for fairly smooth play, and the Surinamese began finding their rhythm, but not without the Guyanese making counterattacking forays, with Omari Glasgow showing flashes of his usual brilliant self.
After Van Der Kust’s opener, the game was locked in a midfield battle, and on one of Guyana’s trysts forward, Suriname’s opening goal-scorer returned the favour, felling a Guyanese player in the box to concede a penalty.
Up stepped Glasgow, who sent the keeper the wrong way to bury the penalty with aplomb to draw the home team level in the 43rd minute to raucous cheers.
The remainder of the half petered out tamely as both sides headed into the halftime break to consolidate.
In the second half, there was a decline in the Golden Jaguars game as it all began to unravel with the backline struggling to contain Suriname’s forwards. The buildup play from Guyana was disjointed, and they struggled to get out of their own half at times.
What was especially missing was the lack of creativity through Guyana’s midfield, with most plays going through the left wing; in fact, Guyana’s right back, Curtez Kellman, hardly ever ventured out of his own half. Kellman, by trade a defensive midfielder, seemed to be a square peg in a round hole, a glaring tactical error by the coaching staff.
With the Guyanese running on tired feet, the Surinamese settled into their game and could have easily scored 4 or 5 goals, and were it not for some excellent goalkeeping by Guyana’s custodian, Quilan Roberts, the scoreline could have been much worse than the final 3-1.
Just after the break, Robert’s was called into action several times, making two clear cut saves off of headers from Myenta Abena and Gleofilo Vlijter to keep his side in the hunt.
Osaze de Rosario, Guyana’s striker, missed a golden opportunity to put his team up, and he had done the hard part of rounding Suriname’s keeper, but he could not keep his feet, and the ball escaped him just as he was about to kick it goal-wards.
With that chance gone begging, the Surinamese would punish the home side, with Jaden Montnor getting on the score-sheet in the 66th minute. He latched on to a pass from Denzil Jubitana and lashed the ball into the top right corner to make it 2-1.
From there, the Surinamese did not look back, and Roberts was called into action a few times more before the final goal, a beauty from Virgil Misidjan in the 84th minute.
It came off of a fast break, and Misidjan, having beaten the backline one-on one with Roberts, got the better of the Guyanese keeper, rounding him to slot home with glee to confirm the win.
While the home match was Guyana’s first in over a year, they will now head to Martinique for their next fixture at the Pierre-Aliker Municipal Stadium.
