FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022…Clear player pathway for domestic players on track for sustainable national team programme – TD Greenwood

Mar 22, 2021 Sports

GFF TD Ian Greenwood (right) pays close attention as Manager Rawle Adams chats the Golden Jaguars before another session in the Dominican Republic. (Franklin Wilson photo)

By Franklin Wilson in the Dominican Republic, compliments of Secure Innovations & Concepts, Industrial Safety Supplies Inc., Fazia’s Motor Spares and GFF

Kaieteur News – Even as Guyana’s Senior Men’s National Team (SMNT) forges ahead with their preparations for the Concacaf Zone, Group ‘F’ of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualification campaign, Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Technical Director Ian Greenwood has informed that a solid foundation at the local level is being set for the sport.
The GFF’s programme has been deliberate in terms of bridging the gap between local and overseas players ever since 2017 and the investment has been gradually bearing fruits even though there is still some way to go before Guyana begins to consistently hold its own in the Caribbean.
Eleven (11) of the twenty-three (23) players in the current squad here in the Dominican Republic are local based and have been holding their own amongst their overseas based colleagues. These players, along with others have been hard at work, five days each week since January 5th, 2021 under the watchful eyes of SMNT Head Coach Márcio Máximo, Assistant Wilson Toledo and Charles ‘Lily’ Pollard as well as other local Coaches.
Speaking with Kaieteur Sport, Greenwood stated that they {GFF} are striving to ensure the group is prepared as can be for the matches here against Trinidad and Tobago on Thursday March 25th and Bahamas on March 30th.
”It’s a very difficult time in the world at the moment with the covid-19 pandemic and there has been a lot of lack of football, lack of competitions so we’ve had to do a lot of deliberate work at the national training center (NTC) at Providence.”

GFF TD Ian Greenwood (right) in discussion with SMNT Head Coach, Márcio Máximo. (Franklin Wilson photo)

The Federation was in contact with two of its sister Associations in the Caribbean to secure three warm-up or friendly matches to aid the preparation of the team but they all came back at the last moment indicating they would not be able to play.
”So this is also why we’ve come out to the DR a little bit longer so we have an extended period where the two groups can really blend together.”
TD Greenwood further informed that the mandate of the GFF Executive Committee is to always put out the strongest possible team in keeping with the Federation’s financial resources but with a clear player pathway for domestic based players.
”So, since we started there has been a gap between the two groups, so our target in to really bridge that gap between the domestic based players and the international based players. For sustainable national team programme we have to have a robust base so that starts with the Academy Training Center programmes scattered across the country that started in 2017.”
From that programme, the Under-15 National team won the Soualiga Tournament in St. Marten (2017) and followed that up with a credible performance in the development segment of the Concacaf Under-15 boys’ championship at the IMG Academy in Florida, USA.
There, competing in Group F among St. Lucia, Suriname, and St. Kitts and Nevis, the Junior ‘Golden Jaguars’ ended second.
”So players from that group such as Omari Glasgow, Nicolai Andrews and Shawn Adonis are now in the SMNT. We want to ensure that there is a clear player pathway from the regional centers where they would train every week and then from the regional centers we have the inter-academy competitions and then they come into national team training camps at U-15, 17 and 20.”
Thereafter, Greenwood posited is for the players to push themselves into the SMNT. Looking at the set-up of the coaching staff to achieve set goals, it was disclosed that a few models were taken into consideration.

GFF TD Ian Greenwood (right) and SMNT Head Coach, Márcio Máximo sharing thoughts. (Franklin Wilson photo)

”We had Coach Johnson before and the model was that he would come in for a period of time, work with the group and reside back in England. After the Gold Cup we had an opportunity to redesign that model and Coach Máximo based in Guyana. We feel that has been working extremely well because he’s able to be on the ground and see the players on a regular basis. They have been doing a lot of work from a physical and tactical point of view and really understanding the evolving game model of the GFF.
So essentially that is how we want to play in the four moments of the game, in possession, out of possession, transition in and transition out. But this takes a lot of time to get it embedded into the group. The more contact time we can have with the guys and the Head Coach will allow that to come out; we’re still probably about 18-months away from where we want to be in terms of embedding the game model so it’ll be clear knowledge. But the idea of the consistent practice is to ensure that can be instilled on a weekly basis.”
Fantastic team spirit in the group
Commenting on the current group of players here in the Dominican Republic, TD Greenwood expressed delight at what would have been transpiring thus far.
”There is wonderful team spirit I the group amongst both the players and staff; there’s a lot of new younger players within the group who would have come through the ATC’s, which players have been recruited from overseas through our Head of Recruitment Faizal Khan, so we have Nathan Moriah-Welsh (Bournemouth FC), Bayli Spencer-Adams (Watford FC) and Miguel Scarlett (Unattached) all young players but with great pedigree to add to the group. There’s been a lot of mingling to understand where people are from, the connections to Guyana but I think the spirit in the group has been fantastic and this will bode well. We always have the mantra of One Team One Dream and that has really been embedded so far in the days that we’ve been here.”
Greenwood also noted that he’s been impressed with the level of leadership that has been display so far by the senior players, the likes of Captain Samuel Cox, Callum Harriott and Keanu Marsh-Brown among others which have really helped the younger players to groove in comfortably.
GFF targets for ‘Golden Jaguars’
The GFF has already announced that reaching round two of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification process and progressing to the group stage of the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup are its 2021 targets for the SMNT.
The targets are part of the Federation’s strategic plan to set transparent and credible goals for all national teams as it works towards the long-term sustainable development of football. To progress to round two, Guyana will need to top its group, which also includes Saint Kitts and Nevis and Puerto Rico.
For the Concacaf Gold Cup, the team, which made its first appearance at this tournament in 2019, has qualified for the preliminary rounds of this year’s tournament and must beat Guatemala and then either Bahamas or Guadeloupe to secure a spot in the group stage of the final competition.
The full 2021 performance targets for the SMNT Head Coach are as follows:
2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar – Qualifiers
• Qualification to round two (as minimum)
• Win 65% of qualification fixtures
• FIFA ranking improvement of 20 places
2021 Concacaf Gold Cup
• Qualification to 2021 group stage
• Improvement on 2019 performance (3rd in group, 1 point)