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‘Lady Jags’ getting ready to roar again
By Franklin Wilson
They were the first team in the history of Guyana to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup finals, Guyana’s ‘Lady Jags’ back in 2010 (October/November), led by classy and nippy forward, Ashley Rodrigues.
Lady Jags taking on Cuba at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence.
While the Guyanese side, made up of local and overseas College based players did not win any of their games in the Gold Cup finals played in Cancun Mexico, they won the hearts of the Mexican fans with their disciplined and energetic style of play.
The announcement by Chairman of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Normalization Committee, Mr. Clinton Urling that Guyana will be competing in the 2015 Caribbean Zone Women’s Olympic Qualifying competition is welcome news for the Women’s programme.
The GFF has already commenced work to rebuild the focus and awareness of women’s football by hosting a few days of interaction, this initiative is expected to continue according to Technical Director, Claude Bolton.
According to Urling, “We don’t just want to send teams up, we are looking to qualify.”
Female players here and overseas will be excited with the prospects that lay ahead for them and no doubt would be eagerly awaiting word on when trials will commence. When Guyana had qualified, Technical Director at the time, Mark Rodrigues was also in charge of the women’s programme and did extensive work in Canada and the USA along with Coordinator, Colin Baker.
In the 2015 Caribbean Zone Women’s Olympic Qualifying which will commence in August, Guyana has been placed in Group 4 with host St. Kits & Nevis and Cuba whom they had defeated back in 2010 to qualify for the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Competition will be from August 21 – 25 in the Caribbean Island with Guyana taking on the host on August 21 and old rivals Cuba on August 25. The winners of the four respective groups will advance to the final round in October at a venue to be decided.
En route to the Gold Cup Finals, the Lady Jags racked up wins over St. Vincent & the Grenadines (1-0), Suriname (2-0), St. Lucia (8-0) and Barbados (3-0,) but eventually finished second to Trinidad and Tobago in their Caribbean qualifying group which meant they had to collide with Cuba in a home and away series in June/July 2010 to which team would have joined the Twin Island Republic in Mexico.
The first leg of the Cuba match-up held in Cuba, the home team winning by the lone goal of that encounter played in Havana.
Having to win the second leg by at least two clear goals, the ‘Lady Jags’ proved that they belonged when they banged Cuba 3-1 at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on account of goals from Captain Ashley Rodrigues, Brittany Persaud and Justine Rodrigues and equally fantastic goalkeeping form Tenyka Francique.
At the Gold Cup, the ‘Lady Jags’ joined Mexico, Canada, United States, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti.
The lone home based players in that line up were goalkeeper Ronette Cort and defender Collette Hope while some of the other players who played pivotal roles in Guyana’s qualification were Daria Owen, Nikkita Persaud, Shondell Archer, Alison Heydorn and Britany Persaud.
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