Dover confident team will do well next month

By Avenash Ramzan

With two matches remaining in the third round of the 2014 World Cup Qualifiers, Guyana’s Golden Jaguars have upped their preparation for next month’s games.

The local players are currently under the guidance of national coach, Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover, at the Police Sports Club ground, Eve Leary. Speaking after a two-hour session on Tuesday morning, coach Dover said the players have been responding well to training, and they are confident of doing well against Mexico and Costa Rica next month.
Dover explained that currently the focus is on the critical aspect of “finishing”, an area that has been a concern for Guyana over the years.
“Well after engaging in the physical aspect of the training this morning, we tend to do some ‘finishing’ where we play a ‘three versus three’ in the penalty box, which could enable the players them to be much closer to the goal, and have the feel of putting the ball in the goal,” he explained.
“As you can see, we have the net up and what we’re trying to do is make the players get accustomed to hitting that net… we would want to think that this is one of the major parts that they should inculcate in the game, which has been a bugbear for years. So we hope that through these sessions we can see a far more high conversion rate than previous years.”
He added that apart from finishing, the aspect of fitness will also be brought into sharp focus, especially since the local players have been inactive due to a lack of local club football.
“There is an absence of domestic football and due to that fact, most of the players are not that fit so that’s the major focus of these sessions here,” he pointed out.
Commenting on the mood in the camp, Dover said the players are generally pumped up and confident of copping maximum points in the final two games.
“The feeling is just the way we felt for those two games against El Salvador because we saw those games as crucial matches, and just like these upcoming games, we’re in with a slim chance and the players are very upbeat and confident that they can go out and get the maximum six points,” Dover reckoned.
After the 2-3 defeat to El Salvador on September 11 at the National Stadium, Head Coach Jamaal Shabazz had indicated that there are several young and exciting talents waiting to gain the exposure at this level, and the upcoming games could be the ideal time to blood those players.
According to Dover, that plan has been put into action, with several potential Golden Jaguars being included on the team’s roster.
“We have invited a number of young players into the training, which would lead into the encampment… players like Daniel Wilson, the nation al Under-20 captain, Clive DeNobrega, Les Charles and so on… so we have quite a few Under-20 players training with us at the moment,” Dover said.
The Jaguars have two games remaining in the third round of Qualifiers. On October 12, the Guyanese will face Mexico at the National Stadium, while four days later they will travel to Costa Rica for the final game.
The Jaguars have endured three defeats and a draw in this round. They lost 1-3 to hosts Mexico on June 8; 0-4 to Costa Rica at the National Stadium on June 12; drew 2- 2 with hosts El Salvador on September 7, before the 2-3 loss to the same opponents four days later.
After four matches each in Group B, the Mexicans are in the lead on 12 points, followed by El Salvador on five; Costa Rica on four, and Guyana on a solitary point.