CONCACAF Women’s Qualifier… Less than two weeks before Lady Jags begin quest to wi

May 11, 2018 Sports

The 2015 Lady Jags squad.

In just under two weeks, Guyana’s Female national team, the ‘Lady Jags’, will begin their bid to qualify for the CONCACAF Women’s Championship when they host Bermuda, Barbados and Suriname in Group E of the qualifying tournament which will be played from May 23 – 27, next.
The National Track and Field Centre (NTFC) at Leonora which successfully hosted CONCACAF Girls’ Under-17 World Cup qualifying matches last August, will host the six matches on the 23rd, 25th and 27th. Each match day will have a double header beginning at 17:30hrs and the Lady Jags will contest the feature match each night, kicking off at 19:00hrs.
Head of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF), Wayne Forde, told Kaieteur Sport that he believes Guyana will definitely capitalise on their home advantage to make light work of the opposition, which he also believes are not on the same level as the Guyanese girls.
According to the football boss, the locally based players have been training rigorously under the watchful eyes of Technical Director, Ian Greenwood. Many of these girls who came through the Scotia Bank Academy Training Centers have been putting in hard work since last August when they were preparing for the CONCACAF Girls’ Under-17 World Cup qualification.
Eight of the local girls were part of the squad that performed creditably in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Challenge Series which was held in the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
In 2010, the ‘Lady Jags’ made history by qualifying for the CONCACAF Gold Cup held in Mexico, a tournament featuring the best women’s sides in the region and also serving as qualification for the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Although they didn’t win a game that is the only major international tournament a football team from Guyana has qualified for. In 2015, the Lady Jags also made it to the final round of Olympic Qualifying in Texas.
The flagship female team had created history when they defeated Guatemala 2-1 and became only the third Caribbean side to register a win at that level of CONCACAF football. Second half substitute Mariam El-Masri in the 71st and Alison Heydorn in the 76th minute were the goal scores for the Guyana which came from behind after going down in the 54th minute.