Head Coach of the Guyana’s Under-20 female football team, Paul DeAbreu, views his side loss to Mexico in the Concacaf Women’s Championship Under-20 Championship as a learning experience for his young charges.
The Junior Lady Jags suffered a 5-0 defeat to the Mexicans in group stage action on Monday night in the Dominican Republic.
“It is always hard to play Mexico; it’s a challenge,” DeAbreu related.
“They are the best team in the Under-20 group and we’re not at that level yet to compete against them, but we can only learn from playing teams like these.”
Competing in Group F, the Lady Jags were outplayed by the Mexicans although they came into the contest with confidence from a 2-0 success against Honduras at the weekend.
Paolo Chavero opened the scoring for Mexico in the 10th minute and Maritza Maldonado double the advantage 18 minutes later.
Tatiana Flores made it 3-0 with a strike in the 37th minute as the Mexicans went to halftime in firm control.
Upon resumption, Maldonado completed a double in the 56th minute to make it 4-0, and Aylin Avilez tucked in the final goal of the game in the 78th minute. The victory was Mexico’s second in as many games and puts them top of the table, with Guyana in second spot.
The Lady Jags final group game is against Panama on Wednesday (March 2) from 19:00h.
“Going forward we will look to change our formation and style of play. We feel confident that we can continue advancing in the tournament,” DeAbreu said.
The top three teams from each of the four groups will progress to Round of 16, alongside four additional qualifiers.
Guyana is making its second consecutive appearance at the regional championship, having reached the quarter-finals in its first outing at this level in 2020 – just two games shy of qualifying for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup.
Alongside the top 16 ranked sides in the region, Guyana qualified automatically for this year’s tournament as it is regarded by Concacaf as the 10th strongest nation in this age and gender group in the Caribbean, and Central and North America.
