Scotiabank Men’s Caribbean Cup 2016 – Round 3…

Sep 28, 2016, Sports, http://www.kaieteurnewsonline....an-cup-2016-round-3/

The Golden Jaguars continued their Tuesday training sessions at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground yesterday afternoon with a focus on fitness according to Assistant Coach, Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover.

The long time Coach revealed that the players were subjected to a Beep Test on Thursday last, another of the training days and the scores gained were very low.

Yesterday’s session dealt with possession and was also used to assess the level of improvement fitness wise from last Thursday.

Guyana qualified for Round 3 as the best runner-up team and will face host Suriname (4th best runner-up team from round 2) in their first match on October 8, Saturday next at the Andre Kamperveen Stadion, Paramaribo.

Four days later, the Golden Jaguars will engage Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz at the Leonora Track and Field Facility Football Field which will host its first international match following the thumbs up from the CFU.

The local based players were an integral part of the national set up in the second round of this regional competition as a direct result of the Stag Elite League but that level of involvement is not likely to be the same.

Commenting on the involvement of the overseas based players, Dover informed that he is expecting those invited to be in Guyana by this weekend when they will commence full-fledged encampment before travelling to the Dutch nation, next week.

”We are still discussing and looking at the possibility of how many overseas players are able to be here based on availability and those who are injury free.”

Kaieteur Sport understands that a number of players are nursing niggling injuries at the moment.

Both Suriname and Jamaica will be tough opponents and like Guyana, would be eying making the CFU finals and ultimately, the Scotiabank CONCACAF Gold Cup.

In the last four encounters between Guyana and Suriname, the Guyanese have triumphed thrice whilst drawing once.

In an international friendly in February this year, Guyana won 2-0; in October 2010 in the Caribbean Cup it was a similar scoreline in favour of the Golden Jaguars and one year earlier, October 2009 the locals triumphed 1-0. The drawn match ended 1-1 in August 2008.

Against Jamaica, the Guyanese lost their last three encounters including a May 2012 international friendly in the land of Reggae, 0-1.

Dover underscored the fact that both encounters next month are critical for the Guyanese.

”No doubt, our projection is to do well in these matches and come out on top qualifying for the Gold Cup for the first time; this is about the third time we are on the brink of Gold Cup qualification.

The way we manage it this time would be critical for us, we hope that we can get the results needed to make us progress to the next phase and we will work diligently to achieve that.”

It was also noted that just the 20-man team to travel would be encamped from this weekend.