Concacaf Nations League A
Guyana’s National Men’s football team, the Golden Jaguars, squandered a golden opportunity to pick up maximum points against a 10-man Martinique at the Stade Pierre-Aliker, in Fort-de-France, Martinique, as their rough start to life in Concacaf Nations League A continued.
The Guyanese endured an anxious start to the game with Martinique going close to scoring a goal in the fifth minute with a shot from Samuel Renel calling the Guyanese goalkeeper Quilan Roberts into action. However, striker Isaiah Jones, in his second match for the Golden Jaguars, found the back of the net in the 14th minute to settle his side’s nerves and ultimately, scored his first international goal for the country. He ghosted in between the two Martinique centre-backs to meet a Kadell Daniel cross from the left-wing and calmly slotted home to put the Golden Jaguars up.
Things got even better four minutes later, as the home side’s defender Florent Poulolo handled the ball just in front of his goal area and was shown a straight red card by referee Kwinsi Williams in the 18th minute.
A man down, Martinique lost their shape and conceded again in the 24th minute, with Jones grabbing his second of the match after latching on to a pass from Deon Moore through the centre of the Martinique box before stabbing it beyond the keeper to make it 2-0.
Despite going 2-0 down, Martinique regrouped and would put pressure on a shaky Guyanese defence, eking out chance after chance. Much like in their opening game against Suriname last Thursday, Roberts was the only thing standing between his side conceding multiple goals, making five saves in the game.
Martinique’s persistence in attack was rewarded with a goal just before the halftime whistle when a Guyanese defender, Jalen Jones, missed a clearing head just in front of his own goal, the ball popping up for Brighton Labeau to smash it past a flailing Roberts to pull one back for the home team.
The second half saw a much improved Martinique and a flagging Guyanese unit, with the hosts peppering the Guyanese goal with a number of shot attempts, 19 of them in fact, in stark contrast to Guyana’s six attempts.
With the game winding down to the end, Martinique produced the leveler with just four minutes of regulation time remaining, Rudy Varane on hand to stab home a loose ball at close range following a corner.
The 86th minute leveler made for a nail-biting close to the match with the Guyanese barely holding on in the dying minutes of the game.
After the match, Jones, speaking to the media, said that he was “disappointed” in the draw after his side was 2-0 up.
“Against 10 men, it was all mistakes that let them back into the game” he noted.
With a draw and a loss in their two opening encounters, it means that the pressure is on the Guyanese and their next match on October 11 against Guatemala, places them in a must win situation.
