13 Under-20 players touted for local senior duties

Guyana Men’s Senior National Football Team’s preparation…

…Maximo confident ahead of Barbados clash

By Jemima Holmes

Head Coach Marcio Maximo is quite popular for his belief in balancing the composition of the Guyana Men’s Senior National Football Team with local and international players in order to improve development. He has, however, now gone one step further in his quest to improve Guyanese football on the local scene by including younger players in the Senior Team.

Making this revelation exclusively to Guyana Times Sport on Thursday last, when this publication visited one of the team’s training sessions, Head Coach Maximo has said that while a handful of younger players are currently benefiting from senior training, quite a few more will be added to the group when the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship, slated for February 15- 23 in Nicaragua, is completed.
“Today we have six players that is included in the national programme. After the Under-20 competition, where they’re going to Nicaragua, we’ll bring 13 players; 13! Almost 50% of the local senior team will be under-20 players,” Maximo disclosed.
The Coach explained further that it is his hope that this inclusion would inspire the youngsters to go further than their predecessors in the sport.

“I do it not to refresh the team, but to change mentality to a professional mentality. They should aspire (to) something good; they should want to go somewhere far, not just come to training or to a game to play. They should want to be professional,” he clarified.
He also explained that the local Under-20 and Senior teams are currently training together in order to foster this vision.
“We do many trainings together to improve the under-20,” the coach explained.

Getting Gold Cup-ready
Quizzed about the team’s preparation for their home- and-away clash against Barbados on March 26 and 31st respectively, Coach Maximo shared that he has thus far seen improvements in the senior team.

“Definitely! The commitment of the players, their mentality! And all of this will be reflecting in the pitch, you know. Because when we have good commitment, good discipline and good desire, of course everything goes well!” he shared.
Maximo hastened to assert his confidence in the team that is being prepared for this all-important encounter.
“This qualifying for Gold Cup is more difficult than the last one, because the last one you just qualifying in group stage, now it’s playoffs. I believe we have a strong game against Barbados because we have equal chances, but I’m very optimistic that we can beat Barbados; and also, (afterwards), beat Trinidad,” he said.
“I think the mix between our international players and locals maintains the desire to play for the national team; maintains development, and I think that it’s good. I think now we have a competitive team. If we maintain the commitment we see out here from staff and team, we can get our achievement,” Maximo opined.
Revealing that his work with the national team has many important aspects, he cited reduction in the number of foreign-based players and inclusion of locals as necessary contributory components to the improvement of Guyanese football.
“The importance of qualifying for the Gold Cup is same as developing players and developing mentality; because this players’ development is forever, it’s not for a special time. We will keep getting results until next ten years, and that’s why we keep working on it,” he said.
He, further, stressed on the importance of fresh, young faces in the senior team, noting that that would improve football all around.
“If you see, majority of the players are young players; it renews the mentality here. Definitely, Guyana has started a new time in their football, and I hope that it will grow, put a lot of players on the international market, improve the local clubs, improve the youth teams and also senior teams,” Maximo declared.