The Lady Jaguars suffered their second consecutive crushing defeat in the 2022 Concacaf U20 Championship yesterday, losing to Panama by a 5-0 scoreline at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Guyana ended the group stage with a record of one win and two losses. The Lady Jaguars defeated Honduras 2-0 in their opener on Saturday, before losing to Mexico 0-5 on Monday.
The Guyanese’s starting XI comprised Arden LaRose, Jessica Myers, Hasha Holder, Jenea Knight, Shamya Daniels, Dylana Makarowski, Inari Moore, Kiana Khedoo, Samantha Banfield, Valentina Khan and Audrey Narine.
The contest started in the worst possible manner for the Guyanese as Holder recorded an unfortunate own goal in the second minute, directing an attempted headed clearance following a left sided corner-kick, over the goalkeeper and into the right side of the net.
It would prove to be the first of three eventual first half concessions for Guyana. The second occurred five minutes later, compliments of Hillary Jaen, who slammed her right footed shot from inside the centre of the box into the lower right corner.
Shayari Camarena essentially ended the contest in the 40th minute, directing a lobbed header into the right corner, after latching onto a left sided corner-kick. Elibeth Vasquez made it 4-0 in the 54th minute, slapping her effort into the lower left corner, after receiving a right sided pass inside the six-yard area.
Camarena then completed the rout and her double in the 61st minute, volleying her first time right-footed effort onto the underside of the crossbar and into the net, after latching onto a cross from the right side of the penalty box.
The statistics illustrate the lopsided nature of the engagement. In terms of attempts, the Panamanians tallied 29, of which 12 found the target resulting in the eventual result. 11 corners was also the byproduct of Panama’s attacking dominance.
On the other side, Guyana could only muster seven shots, with a solitary effort being on target off the boot of Banfield, which struck the crossbar in the 43rd minute. This lack of attacking quality only resulted in two corners.
Similarly, Panama recorded 457 passes at a completion rate of 83%, which translated to a mammoth 72% of possession. Guyana registered 28% of possession with 191 passes at a conversion rate of 60%.
Due to the outcome, Panama finished in the second spot on four points, while Guyana ended on three points. The final match of the group between Mexico and Honduras will confirm the outcome of the section. A win or draw for Mexico will seal Guyana’s place in the round of 16 section while a Honduras victory will eliminate the Lady Jaguars from the event.
If fortunate in their progression to the elimination round, the Lady Jaguars will face-off with the second place finisher in group-H, which could be either Guatemala, Haiti or Jamaica following the end of the group stage round in that section. The Guyanese were knocked out at the quarter-final stage in the 2020 edition by Haiti.
