Revenge will be high on the agenda as Guyana’s World Cup football preparations kick off with a match against arch-rivals St. Vincent and the Grenadines in Guyana on January 13, a release from Public Relations Officer of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Frederick Granger, stated yesterday.

According to the release, Technical Director and Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz, has short-listed a squad of players and is expected to add a few more names to that list at the end of the Kashif and Shanghai Tournament All Star game.

St. Vincent was the only team to defeat Guyana via a 2-0 score line during the Digicel Cup Finals in Trinidad in January.

The Golden Jaguars are expected to play some seven matches over the next two months against the likes of Honduras, Cuba, Antigua and St. Kitts both in Guyana and away, the release stated.

Shabazz sees the upcoming series of matches as an excellent opportunity to arrive at the right blend of players to form the Golden Jaguars.

“We have several games coming up. We’ll be going to Antigua, St Kits and St Vincent and the Grenadines to play additional matches. It will be an opportunity to get the team back in training and to look at a couple of players and get them to gel with those who have been in the team before. It will also be an opportunity to recall some players who have been in the team in the past and whom I am very impressed with,” he told Stabroek Sport.

Though Guyana has dropped in the FIFA rankings because of inactivity, Shabazz is not too disturbed.

“The FIFA rankings are not my main concern at the moment. These matches are to expose some new players to international football and gel a team that will take up where we left up in 2006,” he says adding