Golden Jaguars head-coach Jamal Shabazz said he yesterday that he was disappointed with his team’s opening group match loss to Suriname in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Caribbean Cup third round qualifiers
Guyana went down to their Dutch rival 2-3 Saturday at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Paramaribo and the Golden Jaguars will next oppose defending champs Jamaica tomorrow at the Leonora Sports Facility in a must-win fixture.
In an interview with Stabroek News following the team’s return to local shores, Shabazz said:“Obviously we went out to try and get the three points so we are disappointed. The whole group is disappointed that we didn’t get it. I thought we played well for 30 minutes, we took the lead but that was as much gas we had in the tank to take us.
“Unavoidably, we had more than three players on the field who couldn’t play the full 90 minutes so we were not able to impose our will on the game,” he added.
According to the Trinidad and Tobago native, “We had too many players on the field who didn’t have any 90 minute match under their belt and as a result, as the tempo increased we lost our effectiveness. “Obviously the local players did their best and gave what they had but I think the better prepared team Suriname won on the night.”
Shabazz said that the team needed to be honest in its assessment of Saturday’s match.
“We got to be fair and honest in our assessment, for the first 30 minutes we looked the better team. After that, we were always playing catchup despite leading 1-0. This is the reality, we must face-up to the real things.”
Asked about the improvement required to fashion a positive result against Jamaica and how confident he was in securing a winning outcome, Shabazz said:“First of all, Jamaica is like the recent hurricane [Matthew] in Caribbean football. We have to nail up our doors and windows but we have the benefit of having played a rigorous 120 minutes of football against Suriname.
“Once our recovery technique works, we would have more minutes in our legs to stand up against this mighty opponent. We have to go with a positive mind and think about the next round and be brave and give it our best”.
“To make any prediction against Goliath would be foolish for even David and we are not David. The guys are eager for the test and we are up to the task, we have no fear going into this encounter, we feel Guyanese football could only benefit from this encounter” Shabazz posited.
