The Guyana national under 20 football team is scheduled to clash with French Guiana 4pm today at the Andre Kamper Veen AK Stadium in their first encounter of the 2008 Inter-Guiana Games.
According to Coach Wayne Dover, the Guyana team is hoping to dominate their French opponents in preparation for a tough encounter against Suriname tomorrow.
Dover told Stabroek Sport yesterday that he paid keen attention to the French team during their match against Suriname on Thursday at AK Stadium which they lost 1-7, and is expecting to exploit their weaknesses just as Suriname did.
“The French team is a very technical bunch, but I realized that they lacked physical fitness and they do not seem to be having that attacking spirit.
“They also allowed Suriname to have a lot of space in the midfield and during our practice session today, we made sure that we worked hard at trying to take away that space, and I think that will shut down their attack,” he said.
Dover also said that he was confident that the squad was in good hands under the leadership of debutant captain Andrew Murray Jnr.
“He has entrusted the leadership responsibilities to Murray who has gained the experience from playing senior football for Alpha United as well as the recent training stink in England from the Digicel Kick-Start Clinic.
“We are confident that he will be able to share some of the experience that he has gained to lead from the front by being a discipline and responsible player and if he succeeds at this he will go on to captain the side in the friendly match against Trinidad and in the u-20 qualifiers in Grenada later this month,” he said.
Murray said yesterday, that although he was elated to have the responsibility, he was trying to keep his composure as he intended to give his best effort towards maintaining the captaincy.
The athletics team will also take the track today with Treiston Joseph,
Carlywn Collins, Janella Jonas and Letitia Myles as team Guyana’s strongest gold medal hopefuls.
Joseph hopes to blaze the track to complete a sprint double in the 100m
and 200m after, and his confidence will be sky-high after recording his
personal best in both of the events last Sunday at the President’s Invitational Grand Prix.
Meanwhile Jonas, Carlissa Atkinson and Carlon Halley will be picking up the slack in the middle and long distance events in the absence of seasoned campaigner Alika Morgan and Jonathon Fagundes.
