Golden Jaguars could play friendly international in March
Following their exit from the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Caribbean Cup Qualifiers in October 2016, the Golden Jaguars will possibly return to the field in an international friendly in March 2017 against Grenada or St Maarten.
The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) International Window will occur during the period of March 20th-28th. In this period, friendly and competitive qualification matches are staged.
According to sources close to the federation, “The two countries have written us and have shown interest to play during the month of March. We have not decided if it will be home or away but of course we would like for it to be held in Guyana.”
The sources revealed that the majority of the players will be selected from the Elite League and the corresponding tournaments.
“As soon as the Elite League restarts, the scouting will start. They will also be looking at players outside of the league and the preparation will start very early.
“Going forward, the Elite League will be structured so that there is a one week break after every six weeks of competition for the players to train” the sources disclosed.
Efforts to contact the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) for a comment proved futile.
Although St Maarten is not a FIFA member and thus not eligible to enter the World Cup, the country is allowed to compete in CONCACAF tournaments. St Maarten is ranked 202nd on the ELO Rating, with the last meeting against Guyana ending 2-0 in the latter’s favour.
[The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in competitor-versus-competitor games such as chess. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-born American physics professor].
On the other hand, the 158th FIFA ranked Grenadians hold an impressive 9-5 record against the Golden Jaguars in 16 fixtures with only two matches ending in draws.
The last meeting of the teams ended 20 in a Golden Jaguar victory on March 29th 2015 at the National Stadium in Providence. However, the Guyanese forfeited the fixture 3-0 after it was deemed they fielded an ineligible player.
Guyana’s most recent international assignment occurred was the third round of the CFU Caribbean Cup Qualifiers. The Guyanese lost 2-3 to Dutch rival Suriname on October 8th at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium after leading 1-0 heading into the second period.
Three days later, the Golden Jaguars went down to the defending champions Jamaica at the National Track and Field Centre in Leonora 2-4 despite leading 2-0 at the halftime interval.