Following their convincing 4-0 win over the lowly The Bahamas in their second FIFA World Cup Qualifier on Tuesday, Golden Jaguars head-coach Marcio Maximo has declared that the men’s senior team can still advance to the competition’s second round.
This was disclosed during a post-match press conference yesterday.
According to Maximo, “We are still in with a chance to qualify for the next stage, I think we are in the correct way and the challenges are part of the process for everybody, for local and overseas groups. I had told the players we have three big finals ahead, we still have a good chance of qualifying for the group stage because it depends on ourselves. We should win the two games and also, we have the challenge of Guatemala for the Gold Cup.”
He added, “We are in the correct way. We proved it. The Trinidad game was totally accidental because if you see the statistics, the game was very equal. I think that it’s good for the group to mature, sometimes bad experiences are good for them. I would like to thank President Wayne Forde who has given good support to us. Everything is coming, sometimes good results, sometimes not, it’s part of the process but more importantly we can’t give up our philosophy, our principles.”
The Golden Jaguars rebounded from their opening 3-0 loss to Trinidad and Tobago on March 25th, to secure the vital result against The Bahamas. Presently, the Guyanese sit third on three points, trailing St. Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago with six and four points respectively.
Guyana will resume their World Cup qualifying campaign on June 4th when they oppose St. Kitts and Nevis. They will then end their group campaign four days later against Puerto Rico. Only the group winner will progress to the second stage of the qualifiers.
According to Maximo, “The global process, it’s not coach Maximo, it’s the programme and it’s everyone involved. I would like so much for most parts of the media because criticism is everywhere, to try and understand and see the positive side. Try to understand and see what you are doing, to see what the players are getting because the players never got opportunity like now.”
He noted, “We qualified for the Gold Cup, we renewed the team with young players, not only local players but even overseas players too because you see Nathan, Adams and Scarlett. We not only renewed the local group, but you also renewed the overseas group because to play football today, you should be fast, dynamic because all teams even in the Caribbean, they reinforce their teams with young players.”
Maximo posited, “I hope the media gives support for us, not for me personally but for the programme. That is more important than anything. Players deserve the support. I saw here the big commitment between the overseas players and the local players which made me happy. This is the way Guyana should follow, all cycles have beginning and end, in any area. If you see other national teams, they are renewing, it’s not the same group from the last four to six years ago. I think experience is very important to give balance, you renew it but we have conviction that we are correct and that we are doing better for the players.”
