After viewing the local-based players in action during the four-team, two-day Bounce Back Football Classic, President of the Guyana Football Federation, Wayne Forde, believes the technical staff have “something very good to work with” ahead of preparations for upcoming international engagements.
Guyana is down to compete in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers and the Concacaf Gold Cup Prelims this year, and Forde was enthused by the level of football displayed at the Classic, despite players being inactive for 10 months, owing to COVID-19.
“I think everyone was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the game (final between Georgetown and Linden All Stars),” Forde told the media after the championship contest.
“Clearly, for someone that has a little deeper understanding of the game, you’ll know that the pace was a bit slow; there were moments when you can see the technical ability of the guys was a little bit off, but when you consider most of these players have been inactive in a very structured way for the better part of 10 months and to come out and give this kind of performance, we have to be pleased.”
Forde continued: “I’ve been sitting with the national technical team who are doing the assessments and they feel that they have something good to start with. We are a little bit late with when we would have like to start out national team preparations, but I think this is very encouraging signs that while there is still a lot of work ahead of us we have something very good to work with.”
The technical staff, Forde indicated, will make the call as to the format of preparation for the Golden Jaguars, once that process is given the all-clear to commence.
“I know we have plans for international friendlies, but until the technical staff make those determinations it’s not for me to pronounce on those things,” Forde explained.
