Despite going down to host Bermuda by a 0-1 margin at the National Sports Centre on Thursday night, Head Coach of the Golden Jaguars, Michael Johnson has disclosed that the objective of getting a better understanding of his team ahead of the Concacaf Gold Cup was achieved.
Stating that he is excited with what he would have seen, especially in the second half, the lone goal of the match was conceded in the 37th minute of play and scored by Donte Brangman whose well-placed shot across the goal beat Alex Murray to the far post.
Johnson said he saw what he wanted to see: “Absolutely, I thought the second half there was only one team, first half we didn’t really come out firing but I expected that, there’s nerves, people want to prove their position they’ve got on the team, but we settled down in the second half and we played some good football.”
“As I’ve always said it’s not about the results for me, Johnson continued. “I’ve seen a lot of things that I want from the second half now being played in our next friendly; so I can see progression from the first half where they were edgy and nervy towards a more confident, more composed team, second half. So we’re heading in the right direction,” he added.
The match, which saw a total of six substitutions being made, brought with it some encouraging individual performances, Johnson disclosed: “There was some good individual performances which excites me when I can see the jig saws in my mind coming together.”
Following the first half, Johnson revealed that the half time dressing room talk was centered around him telling his charges that they need to play, believe and be confident in themselves.
“We’ve got to keep hold of the ball and we’ve got to have more pressure on their back line, which I thought we did in the second half and we asked questions. There were a couple of opportunities that could have left or right and it’s a goal; this is a good team and they need to now believe in themselves as a team which I thought was more evident in the second half.”
Johnson, quizzed on if he would be able to get that message across to his charges for the next friendly against Haiti next week, expressed confidence in doing so.
“As I said to you always, the friendlies for me is about finding out things, tonight (Thursday) I found out so much that would one, enable me to coach and position our coaching methodology a different way, individually and also as a team but now I am starting to see personnel that actually coming to the forefront of it so I’m excited for it.”
Guyana has been drawn in Group D of the Concacaf Gold Cup and will play hosts USA on June 18 in Minneapolis, Panama on June 22 in Cleveland and Trinidad and Tobago in Kansas City on June 26.
