The Golden Jaguars ended their participation in the Tri-Nation tournament on a negative note, losing to host nation Suriname 2-1 yesterday at the Flora Stadium in Paramaribo.
It was the first loss of the Jamaal Shabazz reign, as the hosts relegated Guyana to their fifth defeat in six matches in what can be described as a comfortable victory, the 15th for the Dutch speaking nation against their neighbours.
Head-coach Shabazz during a post-match comment said, “I thought we played a well organised, a good tactical Suriname team but we showed good energy, good skills on the wing and our kids are growing up. They are still babies and at times they rocked the Suriname defense. I could imagine what will happen in a few months when they grow up.”
According to Shabazz, “We had two boys who we wanted to see from North America but we building the squad in phases so we try to use the local based players and in March we will try to use more of the UK based, the ones based in London but now we try to build, given Covid and everything, you have to build from home. It’s not a bad effort, the opportunity to play these two games here in Suriname are brave efforts by the Suriname federation, I think all of us Suriname, Barbados and Guyana got a victory over Covid.”
Asked about the positives taken from the match, he disclosed, “I think the willingness to fight to the very end, at time we were organized and then they scored on two occasions and it deflated us a bit but they kept in it because they understood better the exercise and victory for us was our guys sticking to the task and being able to get one in the last minute and causing the referee to panic and blow it off.”
Guyana’s starting XI consisted of Sese Norville (GK), Colin Nelson, Bevin Baker, Kevin Dundas, Clive Nobrega, Daniel Wilson, Darron Niles, Omari Glasgow, Nicholas MacArthur, Kelsey Benjamin and Shemar Fraser.
The Golden Jaguars fashioned the first chance of the half, which proved to be the only attempt of the period, as Glasgow flashed his effort wide of the left corner from inside the centre of the box, after receiving a cross from the right side of the field.
However, Suriname broke the deadlock in the 13th minute as Jamilhio Rigters scored. It was the first conversion of an eventual brace, as Rigters uncorked a powerful left footed strike from outside the left of the penalty box into the top right corner. Florian Josefzoon then curled a right footed freekick from outside the left of the area into the side netting in the 29th minute, as the first half score-line remained unchanged.
Upon the resumption, the hosts doubled their advantage in the 52nd minute, as Rigters completed his double, blasting a thunderous shot into the top right corner from inside the left of the penalty box, after racing onto a lobbed through pass.
Guyana would record their first noteworthy attempt on target of the period in the 86th minute, as substitute Trayon Bobb lashed a left footed strike from inside the left of the area, which was pushed to safety by the custodian.
Nonetheless, Bobb would record a consolation goal for the visitors in the 89th minute, directing a first time effort into the right corner, after latching onto a right sided cross from Jamal Perreira from inside the left of the box.
Due to the result, Guyana ended the tournament pointless, as their opening match against Barbados on Sunday was abandoned in the 33rd minute, following the confirmation of several positive Covid-19 results for the latter.
The match was abandoned by the officials’ 12 minutes before the end of the first half, after four players from the Barbados outfit tested positive for Covid-19. Suriname defeated Barbados 1-0 in the first match of the event on Friday.
